Only Happy When It Rains
by Castleguard
Summary: A Sequel to my story All My Tomorrows, this is three months after. Caskett is intact, but Castle is dealing with MASSIVE Writer's block, and Beckett misses working at the 12th. When the Mayor calls in a favor from the two, they end up with a murder mystery on their hands. Another story I am writing for my wife that I thougth I'd share! Small West Wing crossover, but 90% Castle
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

**This is a sequel to my story, _All My Tomorrows_. **  
** s/8120369/1/All_My_Tomorrows**

**This story takes place 3 months after _Tomorrows_, which was a post-Always piece. **  
**I am using this as an exercise to work on writing a mystery worthy enough of the show, and to practice dialogue between the characters. It is light on fluff, heavy on mystery, big on character interaction, and includes a small _West Wing_ crossover. But it's 90% _Castle_. Enjoy!**

Personally, it had been the best three months of Rick Castle's life.

They had started with a moment he'd been waiting for nearly four years. As a bestselling author of mystery books, he had often used specific people as inspiration for characters in his books. Sometimes, he even received permission to shadow them. That was exactly the scenario that played out four years ago when he met Detective Kate Beckett.

After killing off his longtime novel hero, Derrick Storm, Castle was looking to go in another direction. And when Beckett hauled him to question him regarding a pair of murders that played out exactly like some in his books, his interest was piqued. After providing assistance to discover the identity of the killer, Castle used his friendship with the mayor of New York City to shadow Beckett, using her as inspiration for his new literary creation, Nikki Heat.

At first, that's all it was going to be. But with time, their relationship changed. Bonds of trust were formed, broken, and then formed again stronger than before. A mutual attraction began to form. Unfortunately for the two of them, it was an unspoken one. That had all changed on a rainy night three months ago.

Most of the emotional baggage between Castle and Beckett was contained to a single murder case: The homicide of Kate Beckett's Mother, Johanna. It had gone unsolved for years, almost destroying Beckett in the process. When Castle began shadowing her, he went behind her back to do some investigating of his own. New information was revealed, but her trust in him wavered.

Eventually, he earned her trust back, and stood with her as she pursued the new leads. Every time they uncovered something new, a different path would present itself. But the dark forces that were behind what was looking more and more like a vast conspiracy became concerned that Beckett was getting too close. They had sent killers after her.

Castle understood her life was in danger. He discovered that she'd been protected by her former Captain, Roy Montgomery, who had much more of a connection to the case than anyone realized. After Montgomery sacrificed himself to protect Beckett, Castle received a call from a mysterious friend of Montgomery's. The stranger now had the information Montgomery was using to keep the wolves at bay.

In a moment of gut wrenching honesty, Castle confessed to Beckett that he'd been trying to dissuade her from pursuing the leads anymore. He loved her too much to watch her get killed chasing after them. She told him, in no uncertain terms, that they were through, and Castle left, thinking he'd never see her again.

Yet, later that night, she showed up at his door. Drenched in rain, having survived another attempted killing. After which, she quit the police force for keeping her new Captain, Captain Gates, out of the loop. She confessed to him that she felt the same way about him as he did about her. Since then, their lives had never been the same.

Her would be assassin was caught the next night, during another attempt on her life. This time, Castle stood in the line of fire, literally, to keep her alive. And in that tense moment, they had learned another valuable piece of information. Whoever was behind this conspiracy didn't want Castle hurt. The mysterious assassin would have been charged with the attempted murder of Beckett, along with the actual murder of former Detective Christopher Smith, who was the one who took the mantle of protecting Beckett once Montgomery was gunned down. But charges were never filed, as the assassin was found dead in his cell the next day.

But every day since that day, Castle and Beckett had spent together, enjoying their newly advanced relationship. Sure, they'd been physically close, shared a few quick kisses, and been locked in car trunks before, but the emotional closeness was new and exciting.

Since she had an abundance of free time, not having a job, and he didn't have appointments to keep, he took it upon himself to try and teach her how to cook. It was a different experience, having him in control and teaching her how to do something, but they both enjoyed it. She began to think that a crock pot was some type of medieval torture device, tempting her with delicious aromas all day long.

He had surprised her with a trip to the Bahamas in June. He'd imagined taking her across the globe and seeing the world, but they could have been anywhere and been happy. They never even left their beachfront villa in Nassau, spending the time wrapped up in each other, which was his idea. They even recreated a scene from page 105 of his first Nikki Heat novel, which was her idea.

They'd helped Castle's daughter, Alexis get settled at Columbia. Being a bit of a wild one in college, Castle appreciated that Beckett gave much more sound advice about navigating a university than he could.

Sometimes, they just enjoyed walking around New York City. During their partnership at the 12th Precinct, they'd only get out while examining a dead body or hunting down a suspect. Now, they enjoyed just taking in the sights and sounds of the city. Seeing the sun dip into the Hudson. Watching the tourists marvel at Times Square. Watching the leaves of the trees in Central Park dance in the wind.

Back at his apartment, he would sit in his office, typing away at something, while she curled up in a chair near the window, looking out into the city while listening to his tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard.

She had moved in, to a degree. She still had her own place, but the only nights she stayed there, he stayed too. Moving some clothes over, they had to make room in his closet. She had taken out an old Halloween costume of his that included a long brown coat. She tried it on, playing with the fake gun that came with it. He thought it was funny at first, but then realized the coat was the _only_ thing she was wearing. He then aimed to misbehave.

Personally, it had been the best three months of his life.

Professionally, it had been the worst three months of his life.

Early in the summer, he was able to start his next novel, tentatively titled _Packing Heat_. But now, when he sat down to work, no words came to his mind. He'd sit and stare at the cursor in a blank document just flashing at him relentlessly. He swore he could almost hear that damn thing blinking at him.

He didn't believe in writer's block. He called it _writer's embarrassment_. This was when he'd write whatever came to his mind, despite the quality, hoping that a spark of inspiration found its way from his brain to his fingers. But this was different. His fingers got no instructions from his brain.

The only thought more terrifying than how to overcome his block was thinking of why he had it. The first three Nikki Heat novels flowed from the depths of his imagination like a cascade. But there was a big difference in his lifestyle since writing those books. He was _with_ Beckett, not just shadowing her as he had done before.

Castle refused to accept the notion that because his muse was now his lover played any part in his troubles. Some of his writing peers even warned him that the books would suffer because of their relationship. But it was the only thing that was different. Sure, he wasn't hunting down murderers beside her in the name of research, but after four years, how much more research could be done?

He had kept his troubles hidden from her very well. She gave him plenty of time to work, not noticing that he wasn't typing. But as he stared at that cursor, blinking… and blinking… and blinking… he couldn't contain it anymore.

He screamed at the top of his lungs at his computer.

Beckett jumped a bit from her seat in his living room. She could see into his office, her attention had fallen prey to a John Sanford novel an hour ago. She looked up at him in confusion once he was done. "Are you OK?"

Castle had been so engrossed in trying to break his block that he forgot he was alone. Startled, he looked up. "Fine. I'm fine."

"It didn't sound like it."

Castle searched his desk for an excuse. "No, I just was…" he spied his computer, "… watching one of those videos. You think it's just a nice video of a meadow and then a horrible ghoul comes out of nowhere to scare you. Ahhhh! That was it."

"I didn't hear anything."

"I had it on mute."

Castle decided that continuing to work with nothing to show for it was an exercise in futility. "Do you want any coffee?" He asked her.

"Castle, its 8 o clock at night." She told him, surprised that he hadn't realized that.

He looked out the window to see the orange and red hues begin to dominate the New York City skyline. "Right."

"Are you _sure_ you're OK?" She asked, putting the book down and getting up. She walked into the office, and he quickly shut his laptop, as to not reveal the word document that didn't have a single word in it.

"I just need to take a break." He told her, forcing a smile.

"What kind of break?"

"A… dinner break?" he suggested.

"Sounds like a plan."

"Only you have to pick. I picked last night and you know how much I hate decisions."

She pondered that for a moment. "I'll go get ready." She said as she smiled and bent down to kiss him. They were finally at the point where every time they kissed didn't have to be a grandiose moment. She liked that.

She walked to the bedroom door and closed it behind her. Castle put his elbows on his desk, clasping his hands, and resting his chin on them. _What if I can't write because I'm with Beckett? How do I tell her that? _

Personally, it had been the best three months of Kate Beckett's life.

Professionally, it had been the worst three months.

Just before showing up at Castle's doorway three months ago, she had quit her job as a homicide detective in New York's 12th precinct. She was on the verge of being suspended for following leads in her mother's case and keeping her Captain out of the loop, but decided to go out on her terms.

At first, she had completely forgotten about police work, preferring to enjoy the comfort she found in her new relationship with Castle. In the previous four years, they had spent a lot of time exchanging witty banter and not having sex. Now, they still exchanged witty banter, but everything had changed for the better. Nassau had been amazing, and nothing made her happier than waking up next to him every day.

When they were doing things together, it had been great. He'd done his best to distract her from missing the job. But the last month had been a challenge. He'd been trying to focus more on his next novel, and she gave him the space and time to do it. But it was in those lonely moments she realized she missed police work. She missed her friends at the 12th. She admitted to herself that she was… almost… _bored_.

While he was typing away at his laptop, she would look out into the vastness of New York City from the window of his office. Every once in a while, she would see a squad drive by with its lights on, rushing to the scene of the crime. She'd watch it, and her adrenaline would kick in for a brief time. When it was out of sight and sound, she'd feel a little sad inside.

She felt guilty about being sad. Castle was doing his best to distract her, but it wasn't working. She loved him, but things just didn't feel _complete_.

Even he had been acting strange lately. Well, stranger than normal. He was agitated, and defensive, so Beckett did her best to give him his space.

They got ready for dinner, and took a cab to a restaurant they'd read about in the paper. After ordering, they didn't talk too much. They broke eye contact much more than they had done in their first few weeks of dating. They just sat there, both trying desperately to avoid the solutions to each of their problems. They'd tried to force conversation, talking about their partners still at the 12th, Esposito, Ryan, and Lanie. But neither of them had talked to any of their friends in a long time.

Returning back to his place, they retired to Castle's bedroom to finish off dates the way they normally did. But sex lacked the passion that it had for them when they had first gotten together. They were distracted, and it was routine for them.

Afterwards, neither of them could sleep, each focusing too much on why they were sad.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Castle and Beckett were inside an elevator inside the Chrysler building. They were on their way to a meeting. Both were concentrating way too much on the numbers illuminating above the door, doing their best to continue avoiding certain subjects.

While they had gotten ready that morning, he had done his best to mask the growing frustration with his writing. He usually got up first to shower, giving her an extra 20 minutes to sleep by herself in the large bed by herself. Kate enjoyed moving over to his side of the bed, soaking in the extra warmth and inhaling his scent. This morning, however, Rick gave the shower 5 minutes to warm up before sneaking back into the bedroom and carrying her out of bed and into the bathroom.

She had done her best to conceal the growing longing in her for her job. She had picked out his suit for the day. Going through the motions, she had settled on what was her favorite. She selected the charcoal suit with the faint white pinstripe, on top of a professional white shirt. Since he didn't prefer to wear ties, she threw in a crimson red pocket square for color. Then, she matched him with her won lighter charcoal pantsuit, white blouse, and red scarf for color. They could have passed for a pair of news anchors who had color coordinated for the 11 o'clock news.

They stepped outside into a brisk September morning in New York City. The mugginess had faded early, which meant mornings were chillier than normal. Since he knew they wouldn't be spending too much time outside, Castle skipped the overcoat. Winter would be soon, there would be plenty of time for lugging around an extra coat. Beckett, meanwhile, grabbed her leather jacket, which was light enough to keep on inside, but gave her a good shield against the breeze.

They grabbed a cab and rode to the Chrysler Building. They were on their way to an appointment inside the famed skyscraper.

"How do you know this guy again?" Beckett asked, while staring at the numbers in the elevator.

"The Mayor knows him. And since I owe Robert _big time_, he strongly suggested that I should take the meeting."

Beckett was still confused. "Why am I here?"

"They asked for you, too. I have no idea what they want, but he sounded rather insistent on the phone."

"So…" Beckett persisted, "you have no idea what this is about?"

Castle shook his head back and forth, still somewhat distracted by his writing challenges. "Maybe he's a fan, just wants to meet author and muse?"

Their conversation was interrupted by the chime of the elevator. They stepped off onto the 50th floor. Walking around, they found the entrance to their destination: a political consulting firm called Lyman & Associates.

The receptionist recognized Castle as he walked up to the desk. He flashed a big smile in her direction. "Richard Castle and Kate Beckett here to see Josh Lyman. We have an appointment."

"Of course." The receptionist smiled back. But she didn't do anything, just sat there staring at him, smiling. This lead Castle's handsome smile to change into a perplexed grin.

"Right." She said, snapping back to reality before grabbing her handset. She punched in a few numbers, before saying "Mrs. Lyman, they're here." After a brief pause, she put down the phone and looked at Castle. "He's wrapping up a phone call, if you'll wait for just a moment." She gestured toward the chairs in the lobby.

"Thanks." Castle said.

Beckett led him by the hand to a loveseat in the lobby, which were both flanked by American flags. She was trying to think of where she heard the name Josh Lyman before. "Why do I know this guy's name?"

"Probably from the news. He worked for the last two presidents. He's a political heavyweight."

Beckett let the gears of her mind work through that for a bit. "Is there anything else?"

Castle remembered one of the more dark moments he remembered for Josh Lyman. "He was shot during an attack on the last president."

She snapped her fingers. "That's it. Thanks."

"Mister Castle? Miss Beckett?" a voice asked. The two looked back toward the receptionist to see a tall blonde woman in a sharp looking black business suit. Castle appreciated women who dressed professionally. It was part of what drew him to Beckett. The woman had a very visible bump in her midsection which gave her an extra glow.

"I'm Donna Lyman. Thank you for coming down on such short notice." At this, Castle and Beckett stood up and walked over to shake hands with her.

"It's nice to meet you Donna." Castle said.

"Hi." Beckett finished, shaking Donna's hand second.

"If you two will follow me, I'll take you back to Josh's office." With that, Donna turned around to lead Castle and Beckett into the office section of the business.

Castle tried to strike up a conversation as they walked. "So… Josh used to work at the White House, didn't he?"

"We both did." Donna replied. "Josh was the assistant Chief of Staff under the previous administration, and I was his capable assistant," They turned a corner, continuing down a hallway. "And then he was COS for the current president for 5 years. We got married once the administration was on its feet after the first election. I worked for the First Lady during that time."

"Seems like you had very successful careers." Castle said. "Why'd the two of you leave?"

"Josh had an ulcer and suffered a minor heart attack two months before the last election." Donna said. "His doctors told him that if he wanted to live for more than another 5 years, he'd need a career change. So after he got the president reelected, the president basically told him to leave or he'd fire him."

"After we left, we took six months off, but we wanted to remain in politics somehow, so we began this." She gestured to the area around her. "Lyman and Associates has been up and running for a few election cycles. It helps to get business having Josh's name on the front. Being involved in the leadership of four straight successful presidential campaigns brings in lots of business."

Beckett chimed in. "But isn't this basically the same thing in a different capacity?"

"No, this is far and away much more stress free." Donna continued. "Here, we mainly advise political campaigns on what to do… and _they_ implement our recommendations."

Beckett elbowed Castle in the arm. "Imagine that… they tell others what to do… and they do it."

Donna laughed at that. "So I'm guessing he frequently doesn't listen to you?" She nodded in Castle's direction while making eye contact with Beckett.

"Frequently is an understatement." Beckett replied.

"Well, welcome to womanhood."

They turned into a large office, with a nice large desk. Behind it sat a man in his late 40's, with wavy brown hair, which seemed to be graying around his temples. He immediately smiled as the three of them entered the room.

"Rick Castle… Hi, I'm Josh Lyman. We spoke on the phone" He said as he stood up.

"Hi… nice to meet you, Josh." They shook hands across his desk. "This is Kate Beckett…" he said, motioning to his partner.

"Yes… Miss Beckett. Very nice to meet you." He shook her hand. "You're not how I imagined after reading the books."

"Well, I'm just a rough mold for Nikki Heat." She replied, eyeballing Castle for help.

"Still… I guess I need to work on my descriptions." Castle responded, smiling.

Lyman and Beckett broke apart from their handshake. He gestured to the seats in front of his desk. Castle and Beckett sat down in them as Lyman sat in his chair. Donna found a chair next to the desk and carefully sat down.

"So…" Castle began, "I understand you used to work at the White House. It must have been difficult to leave."

Lyman sighed. "Yeah. Health problems." He said, almost annoyed that he was forced to leave. "After we left, we took 6 months off to do absolutely nothing. It was… a different experience. That was when I found your books. Really liked them. Burned through them in two months."

"The Nikki Heat books?" Castle asked.

"No. All of them."

"You read all 26 of my books… in eight weeks?" Castle said in disbelief.

"I read fast." Lyman replied, confused by Castle's surprise. "Plus, they were really good. They were _much_ more entertaining than legislative briefs."

"He really got into those Derrick Storm ones." Donna chimed in.

"Yeah." Lyman said, smiling. "I liked that guy."

Following that, there was a pause.

"So…" Castle began, "did you want me to sign something? Take some pictures?"

Lyman was confused. "Um… I guess… if you want to."

"Isn't that why you called us down here?"

Josh and Donna exchanged glances, then looked back at Castle. "No." Josh started. "We called you… because we need your help."

"What kind of help?" Beckett asked.

Lyman looked at her. "One of my employees is missing."


	3. Chapter 3

"Why aren't you contacting the police?" Beckett asked. "Why seek us out?"

"For two reasons, Miss Beckett-"

"You can call me Kate."

"Kate." Lyman continued. "First of all, he's only been missing for just over a day. And while this man is politically brilliant, he is a bit… eccentric. There's a chance something is very wrong, but there's an equal chance that he just got bored and quit and didn't tell us. But I need to know."

"Second," Lyman said, "his main duties were involved with the reelection campaign of Senator Anne Marie McCarty. Now, the Senator is polling even with her challenger, and we don't know how those polls will be affected by news of an official police investigation."

This confused Beckett. "Even if the investigation is regarding a missing political consultant?"

"I'm sure the two of you have had your run-ins with the press. They're more concerned about how things _look like_ instead of what they actually are."

"I think I understand." Castle continued. "You don't want any unnecessary attention for something that may turn out not to be anything."

"Exactly." Lyman said, eyeballing them both. "We also do some work for Mayor Weldon, and he mentioned that the two of you were made a pretty good team when it came to tracking down a mystery, and were no longer with the PD. Can you help us out?"

Castle really didn't want to. He'd been so far behind on his Nikki Heat novel, he worried he'd fall even further behind. Then his publisher may be out for blood.

"We'll do it." Beckett said without hesitating.

Castle whipped his head to the side to try and look her in the eye, but she wasn't looking at him. He was going to voice some concern that they couldn't, but Lyman had already accepted their help.

"Great!"

Castle looked to him with a slight look of panic, but Lyman didn't notice it either. Castle looked back to Beckett, who had taken out a note pad exactly like the ones she had used on the job as a detective. "Let's go over some details. What is this man's name?"

Lyman leaned forward in his chair. "His name is Jeff Kaminsky. He's worked here about 6 months, and in that time, he has shown tremendous talent for political campaigns. Strategy, fundraising, scriptwriting, press dealings, financials… this guy is a whiz at everything."

"That's why we put him on the McCarty campaign." Donna chimed in.

"Yeah. The Senator had been very pleased with his input. She was running five points behind when Jeff started working there, and he helped her pull even in the last week."

Beckett was scribbling down notes as fast as she could. "So he was doing well. Do you have any reason to think he was unhappy?"

Josh looked over at Donna. "Something changed two months ago." She said.

"How so?" Beckett asked.

"He was… agitated. Short with people. He seemed very distracted."

"Do you know _why_ that was?" Beckett was in full fledged cop mode now. Castle couldn't do anything but hold on for dear life.

"No idea." Josh said.

"Does he have any family or friends in the area?" Beckett asked.

"None that we're aware of." Josh answered. "He was pretty private. Didn't talk about himself much. But people liked him."

Beckett closed her notebook. "OK, I'm going to need to see any information you have about him. Schedule, contacts, address…"

"Donna, can you show these two Jeff's desk? And call the super at his building and let him know they may be coming." Turning to Beckett and Castle, he continued. "We set him up in housing that the company pays for. I had an intern stop down yesterday morning about 11, but he wasn't there."

"A good starting point." Beckett said, standing up to shake Josh's hand. He stood to meet her halfway. "We'll keep you updated when we come across any new information."

"Thanks." Josh said. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

Timidly, Castle stood up as well. "Beckett, how about you start in Kaminsky's office without me. I just want to ask Josh a few more questions."

She wondered what other questions he had. And why he wanted her out of the room when he asked them. "Sure, Castle."

With that, Donna led Kate out of the room and down the hall. Josh and Rick stood there, watching them go. After a beat, Castle turned to Lyman.

"So… let me ask you about something."

"Is this about Jeff?"

"No, this is something different. I need some advice."

"No problem. Do you want some coffee? Let's take a walk."

The hallways of Lyman and Associates were busy, but nothing compared to what Josh was used to while working at the White House. He led Castle out of his office toward the break room.

"So… during your time in politics," Castle began, "you've probably worked with many different speechwriters."

Josh laughed. "Oh, you bet. I worked with some of the best in the business. For speechwriters, working at the White House is the equivalent of that great white whale."

"Did you ever see any of them go through…" Castle gestured with his hands, trying not to articulate a certain two words.

"Writer's block?"

Castle shuddered at the words. Writers were a different animal, complete with their own little quirks, Josh understood. Politicians were like that too. Once, Josh had forbid anyone from using the term _recession_ while inside the west wing. He had forced them to call it a _bagel_ instead.

Lyman saw Castle wince, and guessed instantly that he had discovered the crux of the writer's query. He walked into the break room, leading Castle to the coffee makers.

"Usually the pressure of an impending deadline was enough to get everyone's butt in gear." He began, while offering Castle an empty cup.

Since Castle had missed a few deadlines already, he knew that wouldn't be sufficient. "Were there any times… when that wasn't enough?" Castle asked, holding his cup so Josh could fill it.

Josh smiled, remembering times gone by. "One writer I worked with said that when you get home, you're going to get an overwhelming urge to drink. Heavily. And that you should listen to that urge." He had filled Castle's cup. "Will Kate want one as well?"

"She'd probably hurt me if I came back without one for her." Castle responded.

Josh got a second cup and began to fill it. "Cream? Sugar for either of you?"

"Both… and… both."

Josh finished pouring Beckett's cup and put the regular coffee back. Castle grabbed the necessary two creams and four sugar packets needed for the two cups and began emptying their contents into the hot beverages. Josh grabbed a cup for himself and began filling it with decaf.

"Another one I worked with liked to go back through old speeches trying to spark something. Even ones he didn't write."

Castle didn't like to read other writer's work while he was writing. He felt that small interpretations may seep through into _his_ writing.

"Did you ever work with somebody who couldn't overcome it?"

Josh thought about that for a moment. "No. From my observation, writing is something that is always inside you. You just have to find a way to help it out." Josh took a sip of his coffee before dropping his voice to ask Castle a private question. "Are _you_ having some problems?"

"None like I've ever had before."

"Well, my buddy Sam went through something like this once." He began, putting his hand on Castle's shoulder. "What he discovered was, he had gone through some life changes that were distracting him from finding his voice. All he had to do was get rid of the distraction, and he was back. Good as new."

Castle swallowed hard as he looked up at Lyman. "What was the distraction?" He asked, fearful of the answer.

Lyman's face turned a tad cold. "His fiancée."


	4. Chapter 4

Beckett had been somewhat glad that Castle wasn't walking with her to Kaminsky's desk. While she did wonder what he and Josh Lyman were talking about, she wanted to pick Mrs. Lyman's brain for a brief moment without him.

"May I ask you a question, Mrs. Lyman?"

"You can call me Donna. I love your suit, by the way."

"Thanks. You look pretty glowing yourself."

Donna smiled a thank you. "What's your question?"

They turned a corner, moving past a bunch of other offices. "I'm assuming that the two of you had done extensive work in politics… and had wanted to work in the industry long before that…"

"Definitely. I told Josh that I felt we both were almost born to do it. Do you know what I mean?"

Beckett did know.

"So," Beckett continued, "it must have been hard for the two of you to just stop doing the very thing you'd been driven to do for so many years."

Donna stopped and looked at Kate with a relieved look that indicated she had never met anyone who understood what she went through with Josh. "It was so hard those first few weeks."

Beckett nodded.

"There were nights when I know Josh didn't sleep at all. I'd wake up and he'd be pacing the floor by the phone, hoping that someone needed to find a few more votes to get some environmental bill passed, and was calling him for help... or some other damn crisis. But it never rang. I thought it would drive him crazy."

Kate was starting to get worried. She understood what Donna was talking about only too well. She'd been dealing with it for three months.

Fearing that there was no answer to her question, Beckett cleared her throat and asked it anyway. "How did he… get over it?"

Donna smiled. "I distracted him." She said.

Kate didn't expect an answer, but now she wanted further details. "How? Vacations? Television?" She dropped her voice to a faint whisper, "Sex? How?"

Donna looked down, breaking eye contact. "No… nothing like that."

"Then how?" Beckett demanded, almost in a panic.

"I got pregnant." Donna said as she looked Kate in the eye again.

Beckett was taken aback. "But… I thought you left a few years ago? This…" She said, pointing at Donna's baby bump, "Seems recent."

Donna smiled, placing her hand on her protrusion. "Well, _this_… is recent. We have a two year old at home… let me show you!"

She retrieved her phone from her pocket and quickly brought up the picture gallery on it. Going through the pictures, she showed Beckett many images of the family. Donna, Josh and a two year old girl with intensely blonde pigtails.

"Oh my goodness… she's _adorable_!" Kate said, momentarily forgetting her problem. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Madison."

"That is so cute. How'd you come up with that?"

"It's the name of my hometown in Wisconsin," Donna said, smiling, "and it's _presidential_." She said with a half eye roll. _That must have been Josh's input,_ Beckett thought to herself.  
After looking at a few more pictures, Beckett snapped back to her situation, a bit more unnerved that she was when she began the conversation with Donna. "So that was what did it, huh?"

Donna smiled as she put her phone back into her pocket and resumed walking. "Yep. After that, he wasn't focused on getting permission from the president to talk to the minority whip blah blah blah. It was all cribs, high chairs, diapers. He actually took to it very well."

Beckett smiled. That seemed to have worked very well for the Lymans. But she wasn't sure that it was the best solution for her.

Donna led Beckett to Jeff Kaminsky's office, and logged into his computer. Beckett surveyed the desk. There really wasn't much on it. No pictures of any kind, no kids artwork, just office supplies. She assumed that he spent much of his time working at Senator McCarty's office.

"I'll let you get started," Donna began, "But I'll go and get you his address."

"Thanks. Does Jeff have a company cell phone?" Beckett asked.

"Yes. Everyone who works directly with a campaign gets one."

"Great." Beckett said. "If you can get me the last few months of bills, that would give us an idea of whom he was contacting. And if you have a recent picture of him, that would help."

Donna nodded her head and turned to leave. She nearly bumped into Castle, who had been concentrating more on not spilling the two cups of coffee than looking where he was going. "Excuse me." He said as Donna side stepped to let him by.

He entered the office, doing a quick survey before placing one cup next to Beckett.

"Thanks." She said, looking up at him.

"No problem." He replied. "What do you have so far?"

She turned back toward the monitor. "Nothing. Just sat down."

Castle surveyed the room as he drank his coffee. It was better than most office coffee, but not as good as what he had at his at home. "So."

Beckett looked up. "So… _what_?" she asked.

"Well, you took on this little endeavor rather quickly."

She shrugged. "They needed help. And they seemed nice."

Castle forced a nod. "Without even asking me if…"

He was interrupted as Donna came back into the room. She seemed to notice that she butted into a conversation, so she kept her input short. "I have his phone records." She said, handing them to Beckett. "And his current address and home phone number." It was on a post it on top of the cell bills. "We've called the super of the building and he has agreed to let you in. We sent an intern there yesterday, but no one was there."

"Thanks, Donna." Kate said.

"Also, I made a copy of his security photo. It's at the end. If you need anything further, the receptionist is right down the hall. She can find me."

From what seemed to be down the hall, the three heard Josh shout. "Donna!"

"Thanks, again." She said, and with that, she turned around and left.

Not wanting to continue the conversation that had been interrupted, Beckett handed Castle the stack of papers. "See what you can find."

Somewhat seething, Castle grabbed the papers out of her hand. Her attention went back to the computer. _No sense in pushing it_, he thought. He began to thumb through the bills.

Beckett was going through Kaminsky's schedule. "He was supposed to be here all yesterday, and at the Senator's office today."

"So… if he was having trouble with the Senator or her office, you'd think he'd skip out today and not yesterday."

"I'm not finding anything very scandalous in his recent emails." Beckett said.

"Hmmmm…"

"What?"

Castle switched a few papers back and forth, comparing information on a few different pages. "It's just… he doesn't do much calling with his phone, but last month… he placed about three calls per day to a specific number."  
"Great. Let's track it down. Maybe they know what happened to him."

"I've got the number right here. It's his _home_ number." Castle replied.

Beckett shot him a confused look. "Why would he call his own home three times a day?"

Castle looked at her and shrugged. "Checking voicemail?"

"Or…" she began, "there was someone staying at his home."

Castle looked back down at his sheet. "The calls lasted… 5 minutes… 8 minutes… 10 minutes…"

"Safe to say he wasn't checking his voicemail."

Beckett turned her head back toward the monitor. Castle looked back down at the bills searching for something that may ping his interest. After thumbing through a few more months, he switched is gaze back up to her. She didn't notice. He watched her eyes dart back and forth, brow furrowed. When they had first met, that furrowing caught his attention. Typically, women he dated didn't do the same amount of thinking as Beckett.

Castle flipped to the back page to see the picture of Kaminsky. He looked about Castle's age, but smaller. His pointed nose and small blue eyes sat below what Castle thought was a growing forehead. A neat crop of receding dark brown hair sat on the very top of his head. He was smiling, showing a perfect row of teeth.

Beckett looked through a few more pages of emails before succumbing to frustration. "I'm not finding anything out of the ordinary here, Castle."

She looked at him, hoping he would start spouting wild theories that would help drive them to further investigation. "Why would a guy, who seems tremendously successful at his job, just vanish?"

Castle didn't have an answer. His usually overactive imagination had been reduced to a vacant stare. "Perhaps he… had some bad Mexican food. He's been trapped in his bathroom."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Oh, Castle… grow up."

"I had that exact same thought… yesterday, while I was playing in my fort."

She laughed. "Let's check out his apartment. If someone was staying at his place, maybe they're still there."


	5. Chapter 5

On their way out of Lyman and Associates, Castle made it a point to show Beckett the address. It fell within the jurisdiction of the 12th precinct. If they needed help, they would know exactly who to call.

The apartment wasn't posh by any standard, but it was far from a dive as well. If you looked up 'average New York City apartment' in the dictionary you'd see a picture of it. Beckett met with the super, who was busy with a rundown boiler in the basement. He handed them the key to apartment 318 almost without hesitation. He said he'd seem Kaminsky around, but never had any type of conversation with him beyond a 'hello' in the hallway.

"He's a super's dream." The man said. "Doesn't make any trouble, no calls to the cops, no noise, no constant problems he's calling me about, and the rent is always paid on time."

_Maybe because the rent was paid by his employer_, Beckett thought. "Have you noticed anything unusual about him lately?"

The super thought about it for a moment. "Not unusual. More frequent. I've seen him coming and going more times in the last two months than… whew… I can remember."

"Thank you, we'll get this key back as soon as we go up and check it out." Beckett replied.

Castle nodded to the super as he and Beckett turned and headed to the elevator. He pushed the up button to call the elevator to them.

Both wanted desperately to end the awkward silence between them. Before either could drum up a conversation to talk about, the elevator opened. Castle gestured to Beckett, inviting her into the elevator first. She forced a smile, _oh, you_, she thought. He followed her in, and pushed the button for the third floor. Once the doors closed, both tried to start up different conversations.

"So I was thinking..."

"Look, I've got to…

"What?" Castle said.

"No, you go ahead." Beckett replied.

"I was just saying that I thought that today… has been an… interesting day so far."

Beckett smiled. "It _has_ been, hasn't it?" There was a twinge of excitement in her voice.

Castle sighed. "I thought these type of things only happened on TV. Friend needs a favor, sucking two experienced investigators into their old roles…"

"Sounds like a fun topic to bring up at the next big Writer's Ball."

"I could… only writers don't have…"

Castle stopped short. Beckett looked at him, eyes wide, the edges of her mouth curved upward. _Say it… please just say it_, she said with her expression.

Castle re-qued his vocabulary. "… gala-type events." He finished.

Beckett laughed. Castle smiled. "An LOL from the lovely Miss Beckett… I haven't heard one of those for a while."

She looked up at him. "Yeah, well, I haven't heard too many from you, either."

"To be honest, it takes a lot for me to LOL. Usually, I just emit an MAC."

"An MAC?" Beckett asked.

"A mildly amused chuckle." Castle responded.

The elevator came to a stop and opened at the third floor. Again, Castle allowed Beckett off first. "So do we get a finder's fee or something if we find this guy?" Beckett asked.

Castle shrugged. "Don't know. But it can't be a bad thing to have someone like Josh Lyman owe you one."

They found apartment 318, Beckett knocked on the door. "Mister Kaminsky? Are you in there?" It was difficult for her not to announce herself as a member of the NYPD, so instead; she went with "Josh Lyman sent us to check on you."

There was no response.

She looked at him. He looked at her. They both shrugged.

Beckett fished the key from the super out of her pocket and unlocked the door. Pushing it open slowly, she held up her hand to keep Castle away as she began to step inside.

"WAIT." Castle said.

"What?"

"Why are you going in first?"

Beckett eyeballed him. "I _always_ go in first."

"You _used_ to go in first. When you were _Detective_ Kate Beckett, ass kicking, _heat packing_ member of the NYPD."

More eye rolls.

"Now, you're Kate Beckett, my crazy hot girlfriend. So I'll be damned if I'm going to let you go in… first…"

Beckett looked over Castle's shoulder, back down the hall. She smiled. "Castle, what the hell is that?" She said as she nodded down the hallway.

Castle turned, prepared for almost anything. But all he saw was… and empty hallway.

Spinning back toward the door, he was just in time to see Beckett's backside enter the apartment. He took a moment to curse himself. _Even Biff falls for that one_, he thought, before following her inside.


	6. Chapter 6

It took a moment for Castle's eyes to adjust to the darkness. All the lights were off; the only illumination came from the patio door. The sunshine did it's best to filter through the vertical blinds, which helped them see a little.

The darkened kitchen was immediately to the right. Despite the lack of light, Castle could see that there was no threat there aside from what could possibly be old food, according to his nose. He began sweeping his eyes to the left. Plain chair, couch made to look like a bed, blinds, computer stand, dead body in an office chair, coffee table.

Beckett had frozen, eyeing the mysterious figure silhouetted by the patio. She raised her left hand to turn the light on. With the added brightness, the pair exhaled a breath of disappointment as they gazed upon the face of Jeff Kaminsky.

His body was reclining in the office chair. Head thrown back, almost like he'd fallen asleep. Arms placed on the arm rests. He was wearing a suit, along with a candy stripe tie, but the jacket was pushed back enough to reveal a large red spot on the left side of his chest.

"Damnit." Castle said as he quickly shut the door behind him. He had hoped to have solved the mystery without stumbling across a corpse. Beckett walked toward the lifeless body. It had been a while since she'd been around one.

Castle got his phone out of his pocket. "Well, I guess we've got some calls to make."

"Who are you calling?" Beckett snapped back.

"Um… Ryan? There's been a murder in their jurisdiction. He and Esposito need to be notified." Castle had both on speed dial, as Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito were the two detectives that Castle and Beckett worked with the most at the 12th.

"Let's not…" Beckett began, "call them just yet."

Castle was taken aback. "Katherine Beckett… you're not violating protocol now, are you?"

She shot back a _gimme a break_ look. "What? Is Captain Gates going to suspend me again?"

If it was Beckett's goal to peak Castle's interest in what the story behind Kaminsky's murder, she succeeded. She hadn't been this type of excited in months. Castle put his phone away and walked over to join her.

"Single gunshot wound to the chest." She began, jotting down notes in her notepad. "Looks smaller caliber. Probably a twenty-two."

Castle looked at her quizzically. "And another thing… where were you hiding that notebook? And have you been carrying it around the past three months hoping that a mystery jumped up and presented itself?"

She smiled at him. "You'd be surprised what I kept from the precinct."

He stared back. "As your boyfriend, I feel it is my right to know what else you're hiding on your persons."

She smirked at him. "Maybe some handcuffs."

He swallowed hard. "You know I love it when the muse is bad..."

Beckett looked back down at the corpse. "From the angle of the body, it seems like he was facing someone who was standing in the doorway when he was shot."

Castle went back to the entryway, and raised his hand as if it were a gun. "Seems right."

"But he didn't get up, and there's no sign of forced entry. So either the killer had access to the apartment and got the jump on him…"

"Or our victim knew his killer." Castle finished.

Beckett nodded. It was just like old times. This is how they were a perfect partnership. There were times when they were on the same wavelength, building on each other's thoughts, turning all the clues into a cohesive possible scenario. But there were other times when Castle ventured outside the box of traditional police thinking. Sometimes, his crazy theories turned out to be the thoughts that broke the case wide open.

Beckett was still dealing with the adrenaline that began flowing through her veins when they first found the victim. Even when she was a cop, it was never easy first seeing the body of a murder victim.

On a hunch, Beckett moved the mouse of the computer. She was careful not to use her hand, instead using the edge of her notepad. Up popped a Microsoft word document, what looked to her to be a speech. "He must have been working when it happened."

Castle walked back over as he began working the timeline out in his head. "Our victim wasn't here yesterday morning when the intern stopped by, so we can assume he was killed sometime since yesterday at noon, right?"

Beckett nodded.

"Then if he didn't show up for work yesterday, and didn't tell anyone where he was, why would he be doing work for the Senator at all? Will he just show up out of the blue when he's ready to come back?"

"Lyman did say he was a bit eccentric." Beckett replied.

"Yeah. Something still doesn't add up."

"OK. We'll call Ryan and Esposito in a moment. You stay here. I'm going to take a look in the bedroom to see if there's anything back there." She began to walk away.

"Don't be too long." Castle said back. "I get lonely… and I'll miss you…"

She smiled at him as she turned the corner.

Castle looked down at the body. After exhausting the living for advice on writing, he decided to ask someone who was dead.

"So." He whispered, so Beckett wouldn't hear in the next room. "I understand you were quite the writer. I'm a bit of a writer myself." He said, grinning and pointing at himself. "But that's not why I'm talking to you now."

Despite the absurdity of having a conversation with a dead person, Castle forged on ahead. "I was just wondering… what you did when you were… stuck. And I mean really stuck. Like… so stuck that you can't even think straight."

Castle's line of questions was interrupted as the front door to the apartment opened and a figure walked in. Castle's heart leaped into his throat as he stood up to face the individual. The newcomer looked directly at the body in the chair, and then turned his shocked gaze at Castle.

Castle's expression had double the shock and triple the confusion. The man he was looking at looked just like Jeff Kaminsky. Not similar to, not a carbon copy, but exactly like him.  
The man looked back at the body next to Castle. "Oh my god!" he said, covering his mouth and sprinting out of the room.

Castle watched him go, his mind churning with mystification. "What the hell was that?" He mumbled to himself. After a few seconds of not answering, he realized that if he wanted to find out who killed Jeff Kaminsky, he and Beckett may need to question the person who looks exactly like him.

"Beckett!" He shouted toward the bedroom, "our victim… he cloned himself… he's running… we should…" not knowing how to finish that sentence, he bolted out of the apartment.

He looked back toward the elevators just in time to see the mystery man go past into the stair well. He started into a full sprint. Legs churning, lungs burning, he may have heard the bing of the elevator had he been going slower.

Just as he was about to get there, two figures stepped out from the lift. Castle was pretty athletic, but he wasn't strong enough to stop his momentum from going forward, and he ran full throttle into one of the figures, both of them tumbling to the ground.

Things became blurry, he tried to see if the mystery man had doubled back at all, but he seemed gone. Without hesitation, the man he had just bowled over lifted Castle by the lapels and slammed him against the wall. _Hard_. Castle closed his eyes, expecting to get a beating from whomever he just went all office linebacker on. But no beating came.

"Castle?" A familiar voice said.

Castle let his eyes open a tad to see who was saying his name. The man holding him against the wall was none other than one of his former partners at the 12th, Javier Esposito.

"Esposito?" Castle returned.

By now, Beckett had entered the hallway and saw what was going on. "Ryan?" She asked

The other figure was looking back down the hall toward Kaminsky's apartment. "Beckett?" Said Detective Kevin Ryan.

Castle gave a little smile, as he looked back and forth between Esposito and Ryan. "Hey! Fancy meeting you two here! What's new?"


	7. Chapter 7

"What are you two doing here?" Esposito asked.

"Well, funny thing about that…" Castle began. Esposito responded by pushing him into the wall a tad harder. "We can explain… How've you guys been?" He forced a smile, as Esposito pushed air out of his lungs.

Esposito looked back at Ryan. "He doesn't call… doesn't write… now he wants to know how we've been?"

Ryan let out a single laugh. "Oh, things are peachy keen with us."

"Lanie and I are back together." Esposito said to Castle.

"And Jenny's pregnant." Ryan finished.

Castle smiled. "Really?"

"No." The two detectives said in unison.

Beckett walked over and put her hand on Esposito's arm. He looked at her, then back to Castle. He relaxed his grip on Castle, straightening his jacket as he let go.

"But…" Esposito started, "It would have been nice to have heard from either of you over the past three months."

Ryan stepped forward. "Yeah. If Javier was capable of normal human emotions, I'd say he missed you. We both did."

If this had been a normal _hey, how are you doing, it's been a while situation_, hugs may have been exchanged. But with Castle and Beckett having just stumbled across a corpse, and Esposito and Ryan slightly miffed that communication between the four had been nonexistent recently, they skipped the hugs.

Castle spoke up. "So… why are you guys here?"

Esposito turned to him. "We got an anonymous tip of a dead body on one of these apartments."

Beckett could tell where this was going. "Was it apartment 318?"

Ryan looked shocked. "Yes. Yes it was."

"We found it for you." She replied.

Castle was desperate to inject his perspective into the situation. "Yes… we found it. And then, while Beckett was snooping around, I saw a guy who looked _exactly_ like our victim. So I was running after him when I ran into you. I'm thinking he may have had himself cloned just in case something happened to the original." Castle finished.

Ryan stepped next to Esposito as the two of them stared down Castle. "Now… let me get this straight." Esposito started. "You found an active crime scene."

"With a dead body in it…" Ryan continued.

"… And your first instinct _wasn't_ to contact us to investigate?"

"Your first instinct was to… snoop?"

Castle looked to Beckett for help. "I _did_ want to call you guys. She told me not to. She's the one who wanted to look around a bit before we called you."

The two detectives looked at each other. Then over to Beckett.

"What do you have so far, Beckett?" Ryan asked her as both got out notebooks.

Castle was irritated. "Wait a minute. If you think I was the delay, you're all over me… but if she's the delay it's all _what do you have so far_?"

Esposito looked at him. "Yes."

Suddenly, Castle remembered why he had run into Esposito in the first place. "Hey… if we want to question our victim's clone, we'd better hoof it downstairs to get him."

"Espo, you and Castle take the stairs… Ryan and I will take the elevator." Beckett ordered.

"Right." Esposito said as he grabbed Castle's arm, dragging him into the stairwell.

The four reunited in the lobby, but the mysterious clone had vanished. Esposito and Ryan fanned out into the street, returning after a few minutes. They had a crime scene to secure.

Beckett and Castle shared all the information they had. Who Jeff Kaminsky was. Who he worked for. How they got on the case.

Esposito called the precinct to bring some uniforms to rope things off and begin canvassing the area. He notified CSU, and the Medical Examiner's office. Within a half hour, Jeff Kaminsky's apartment became a bustle of activity.

Meanwhile, Ryan was calling to get further background on the victim. "OK, thanks." He hung up his cell and walked over to Esposito, Beckett and Castle. "So… I've got a key piece of information on whom exactly we were chasing."

Castle was waiting for someone to ask him about that. "Let me guess… it was the product of a secret government cloning program that they needed to keep under wraps. So Kaminsky was silenced by the administration to keep it top secret."

Ryan shook his head.

"Um…" Castle thought, "I got nothing else. I kinda put all my eggs in the whole cloning conspiracy basket."

"No, our victim has an identical twin brother, Ronald."

"Well, that's not an interesting story. To easy." Castle retorted.

"Turns out," Ryan continued, "Ronald… was recently released from prison."

"Let me guess." Beckett said. "He was released two months ago."

"Bingo. Served two years for tax fraud."

Beckett considered this new information. "Maybe that's why the super thought he'd seen Jeff more frequently. He was seeing Jeff and Ronald thinking they were the same person."

"It may also explain why Jeff seemed agitated at work." Castle added.

Esposito nodded to the couch. "Maybe Ronald was crashing here a few nights a week. Looks like someone was sleeping in this bed."

"Someone… check the porridge." Castle shot back.

It was at this point that the door to Kaminsky's apartment opened, and Medical Examiner Lanie Parish walked in. She made her way to the foursome. "I was kinda hoping we could meet over drinks sometime… not corpses."

Beckett was a little embarrassed. Lanie was her best friend, but she hadn't really talked to her for three months. She'd been too busy with Castle. Even in those quiet moments while he was working on his novel, she wasn't interested in talking too much. "I know… I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, Lanie."

"Don't worry about it, girl. I assumed you were busy." The ME feigned being hurt as she leaned in for a quick hug. Once her mouth got near Beckett's ear, she dropped her voice a tad. "You're looking well… lots of _rest and_ _exercise_ I'm assuming?"

Beckett couldn't suppress a little laugh and blush.

"What's so funny?" Esposito asked.

"Please don't answer that." Castle told Beckett. He knew why she laughed.

"Let me show you what we have." Kate said to Lanie. They walked over to the body, talking more about Caskett than the body destined for a casket.

Ryan's phone rang. He answered it and walked into the kitchen to speak.

Esposito and Castle were left to an awkward silence.

"So." Castle started.

"So." Esposito stared back at him.

Castle searched his memory, hoping to come up with some topic for conversation. "Seeing anyone?"

Esposito cocked his head to the side. "Dude. We're at a crime scene. We're standing 15 feet from a dead body."

"I'm sorry."

But Esposito continued on. "Twisted, man, how do you sleep at night?"

Castle had been ready for that question for a while. "On satin sheets… next to a very beautiful woman." He grinned.

"OK… anything you wouldn't say to a hypothetical older brother of Beckett, don't say to me either."

"Gotcha."

"I don't need to be privy to those details."

Ryan had finished his call and was walking back. Beckett and Lanie were within earshot of the group.

"Do you want the bad news or the really bad news?" Lanie began.

The three men looked over to the pair of women.

"He has no ID." Beckett said.

"But we know he lived here… Castle's got a picture of him." Esposito questioned.

"It's going to be a challenge identifying this one." Lanie continued. "Someone burned his fingerprints off… with _acid_."

"Why would they do that?" Castle wondered.

"Someone just wanted to make my job that much more difficult."

Looking at Esposito, then Ryan, Castle began his cavalcade of theories. "Maybe someone killed Jeff… and wanted us to think it was Ronald?"

"Or," Esposito continued, "Someone killed Ronald and wanted us to think it was Jeff."

"Or," Ryan jumped in on the fun, "Someone killed one of them, but wanted to raise enough doubt with us about which one it is."

Esposito was confused about something. "Wait a minute, if they're identical twins, wouldn't they have identical fingerprints?"

"No. Identical twins have very similar fingerprints, closer to each other than random strangers, but there are differences between the two." Lanie answered.

"This is going to be a problem if we can't locate his twin." Castle added.

"Great." Esposito said. "So we've got a murder investigation _and_ a missing person's case."

"And the bad news just keeps on coming," Ryan began, "We're going to need you two to come with us."

"Why?" Beckett asked.  
"Captain Gates wants a word with you two."


	8. Chapter 8

Neither Beckett nor castle had spent too much time in the back of an unmarked Crown Victoria. Usually, Beckett was driving with Castle riding shotgun. But since Beckett wasn't with the force, and didn't have authority to drive a PD car, they were relegated to sitting in the back of Esposito and Ryan's ride.

It was a very quiet ride to the 12th precinct. Castle and Beckett had the feeling of a pair of delinquents off to see the principal. Beckett's mind was swirling, dreading the impending meeting with her former captain. She had hoped to meet with Gates under much different circumstances, perhaps asking for her job back.

Castle was eyeing Esposito and Ryan, who appeared to be having a non-verbal conversation. They were obviously hatching some type of scheme involving Castle and Beckett, but couldn't talk about it since they weren't alone. Nods, eyebrow raises, head shakes and quick exhales replaced words as the two partners interacted. Castle had no idea what they were saying, and didn't know if it was good or bad.

Walking back through the 12th brought back loads of memories for the four of them. Many crimes had been solved among the desks of the bullpen. They walked past Beckett's old desk. She looked down at it. It was void of all the personal belongings she had brought in over the years. No one had claimed it in the meantime. It sat empty, lonely, longing for an occupant to sit down and pour over crime scene photos, or call down the ME's office. No other officers in the department wanted to take Beckett's desk. They all secretly hoped that she would return someday.

Some of the other detectives and uniforms took notice that Castle and Beckett were making their way through the office. Some stared in disbelief. Others waved and smiled.

Ryan led the team into Captain Gates' office. She looked down at her paperwork until all four were in her office and the door was closed.

She removed her reading glasses and stood up, eyeing Beckett and Castle. But mostly Beckett.

"Well. Of all the people I thought I'd run into today, you two were definitely at the bottom of the list."

The couple looked at each other for support.

Walking around her desk, Gates exhaled, almost with the ferocity of a bull about to charge. "Let's hear it."

Beckett wasn't speaking at all, so Castle decided to begin. "Well, we were in the…"

Gates shot him a look. "Not from you." She said as she pointed at him. "From Beckett."

Beckett wasn't surprised that Gates was pushing her around instead of Castle. But she was ready for the Captain. "Sir, we were brought in to investigate the disappearance of Jeff Kaminsky by his employer, Lyman and Associates…"

"The political consulting firm." Gates finished.

"Yes." Beckett replied. "Kaminsky had gone AWOL for just over a day. The owner there was concerned, but wasn't looking for a full blown police investigation for what he thought may amount to nothing."

"I don't agree with that," Gates said, annoyed with the idea that the PD wasn't the best option for a missing persons case. "But go on."

"After our initial investigation at his office, we decided to go to Kaminsky's apartment to see what we could find. The super gave us the key, and we went inside to discover the body."

"And that's when you two showed up?" Gates said, pointing to Esposito and Ryan.

"That's right." Ryan spoke up. "Castle was in pursuit of the identical twin of our victim when we… ran into each other… the twin escaped. We've got an APB out for him."

Captain Gates' eyes darted back and for the between the four of them. "OK. Miss Beckett, Mister Castle… I want you two to sit down and give every detail you know to Detectives Esposito and Ryan. Once you are through, you may go home and leave the investigation to us."

Beckett's heart sank a little. Working on this case, even in the short time they'd been on it, had been thrilling. She hated the idea that she had to just give up without a resolution.

"Captain, if I may…" Ryan stepped forward. Gates turned to face him. "Beckett and Castle have done so much preliminary investigation on this case, having them go through every detail with us would only delay us in finding a resolution."

Castle and Beckett looked at each other. _Much preliminary investigation_? They'd only been on the case for a few hours.

Esposito stepped forward. "Plus, this isn't a normal homicide investigation. There was no ID on the body. And his fingerprints were burned off. Doctor Parish is working on ways to get a positive ID, but at this point we have no way of knowing which twin we have in the morgue… and which twin we're looking for."

Gates pondered this for a moment.

"At this point," Ryan continued, "we have to consider possible motives against _both_ Jeff and Ronald Kaminsky."

"What are you asking for, detectives?"

Esposito and Ryan looked at each other. "We think it would be much more efficient… if Castle and Beckett could work with us on this one." Ryan finished.

"And why do you think that would be a good idea?"

"Look, Captain…" Esposito began. "We're not talking about random civies looking to help out. We've worked with these two; we've solved dozens of murders. If it was anyone else, we wouldn't be making this argument. But this situation seems unique."

Gates looked at Esposito. Then to Ryan. Then back to Esposito.

Walking back to her desk, she opened up the top right drawer and pulled something out. She then walked back to the front of her desk, parted Esposito and Ryan to stand in front of Beckett. She held out her hand, revealing Beckett's badge.

Kate could feel hear heart pounding in her chest. Adrenaline was once again flowing through her veins as she looked down at the golden star.

"The detectives make an excellent argument. If you want to help out, I will allow you back on the force for a probationary period."

Beckett looked up at Gates. She was almost too stunned for words. Just a few moments ago, she thought she was done with the whole case. Now, she was being offered a door back into the department. "I won't let you down, sir."

Standing behind Gates, Ryan and Esposito exchanged a fist bump. This was clearly the devious plan they had concocted without the use of words back in the car.

Castle wasn't sure what to think. This morning, he hadn't wanted to take on the case of the missing Kaminsky, now he and Beckett were in the halls of the 12th, helping out in finding a killer. But since he'd probably only be sitting at home staring at the blinking cursor if he wasn't here, he figured he may as well go along for the ride. For old times' sake.

Gates turned around, giving Esposito and Ryan time to suppress their smiles. "Now… these two… are _your_ responsibility. If they screw up, I'll be looking in _your_ direction." She said, pointing at the detectives.

"Understood, sir." They said in unison.

Beckett had one more question, but she wasn't sure how to ask it. "Sir… may I… have my…"

"Your issue?" Gates asked.

Beckett nodded.

"No. Not yet."

"Wait a minute." Castle said. "What if she needs to defend herself while we're out? What are we supposed to use? Bad language?"

"You two… won't be out." Gates said, pointing at Beckett and Castle. "Beckett, grab a taser from the lockers… and you're with Esposito for the day. Detective Ryan, you get to writer-sit Mister Castle."

The four of them looked amongst each other. It wasn't an ideal situation, but it was what they'd work with for the time being. All four began walking toward the door.

"Mister Castle, a moment?" Gates said.

Beckett looked at him. "It's OK. I'll be right behind you." He told her. With that, she turned around, joining Esposito and Ryan in the bullpen.

Gates shut the door behind them and looked Castle square in the eye. "I may be giving Beckett an opportunity to prove herself and return to my precinct, but this offer does _not_ apply to you."

Castle swallowed hard. "I was under the impression…"

"You were wrong." She shot back. "I will allow you to work this case since you are already involved. But like Esposito said… this situation is unique. I don't see it happening every week at a specific time." She took a step toward him, pointing a stern finger in his chest. "I do not consider you the asset my predecessor did. I have told the mayor that he will no longer dictate to me who I have in my precinct. So once this case is over, if Beckett proves herself again, she can have her job back. But you will not be welcome here. Do you understand me?"

Now it was Castle's turn to feel terrible. "Perfectly." He replied.


	9. Chapter 9

Castle opened the door to Gates's office and walked out. He saw Beckett and Esposito getting coffee in the break room. She was smiling while they talked. It was a smile that he hadn't seen in a while. Castle didn't know if it was being with her detective brother again, being in this building again, or working a case again that brought out that smile in her. Maybe it was a combination of all three. While she had been very happy during the past three months they had been together, Castle understood that this was a different kind of happy for Beckett.

He thought about what Gates had told him. _There's no use telling Kate right now_, Castle thought to himself. He thought her laser focus would be best put to use finding the killer of the Kaminsky brother they had stumbled across this morning.

Ryan was beginning to fill out the murder board as Castle got his phone out. He'd been looking for a time to update Josh Lyman about their situation. It wasn't going to be the easiest conversation, but considering his current mood couldn't be any lower, he figured that he may as well get it over with. He recalled the number for Lyman and Associates, and asked for Josh Lyman.

"Mister Castle… how is your searching going?"

"Hi. It's been interesting. I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Lyman exhaled. "What is it?" He asked, his voice caked with worry.

"We found a body in Jeff's apartment. It looks like him."

Josh was silent for a moment. Castle could tell he was processing the situation.

"But here's the thing. We've also discovered that Jeff had an identical twin brother."  
"A twin?" Lyman asked.

"Yes. The other bit of bad news is that whoever our killer is; they made sure to burn off the body's fingerprints. The medical examiner is doing her best to make a positive ID on the body. But at this point, we're not sure which twin we have."

"Well this is probably the worst way to start off a day. Do you know where this twin is? He may know what's going on." Josh asked.

"We're looking for the living twin, as we speak, but since the case now involves an official homicide, the police department is involved." Castle told him. "Now, Beckett and I are working with them, so if we come across any new information I will pass it along."

Castle could tell that Lyman wasn't too happy to hear any of the news. But who could blame him. "OK. Thanks for the update. I'm heading down to Senator McCarty's office. They're in some type of damage control at the moment. I don't know why. But if you need to get a hold of me, call my office, ask for Donna, and she can patch you through to my cell."

"Will do. And Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Since this is an official police investigation, it would be best if you kept this information to yourself. At least until we can get things sorted out."

"Believe me; I won't be saying a word of this to anyone. Good luck, Mister Castle."

"Thanks." Castle hung up his phone as Beckett and Esposito came over, each with two cups of coffee. Beckett handed him one, keeping one for her. "Thanks honey." He said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"You're welcome, dear." She responded.

Both then looked at Esposito, who was handing his extra cup to Ryan.

"Thanks… man?" Ryan said, taking the cup.

"No kiss for me, dear?" Esposito asked.

Ryan looked confused, as Beckett was suppressing a laugh.

He began to lean in, before a shocked Esposito said "Kidding, bro."

"I knew that."

Beckett wanted to get started. "What do we have so far?"

Ryan stood to the side of the white dry erase board that the detectives called the 'murder board'. It held all the pertinent information they had gathered so far in the case. This case dictated that the murder board be divided up into three sections. One for each twin, and one for the body.

Ryan pointed to the photo of Jeff Kaminsky in the section closest to him, on the left. "OK. Jeff Kaminsky. 40 years old, raised in St. Louis, studied political science and speech while at the University of Michigan. He's worked in various political campaigns since he graduated, but he's relatively new to New York. He moved here about a year ago. Six months ago, he began working for Lyman and Associates as a consultant, mainly on the re-election campaign of Senator Anne Marie McCarty."

Esposito tapped Castle on the shoulder. "Any thought that this Lyman guy may be behind it?"

"I doubt it." Castle answered. "Kaminsky was Lyman's top employee from what we hear. He would actually suffer a bit if Jeff Kaminsky were dead."

Beckett spoke up. "Plus, Lyman was the one who brought us in on the case. If he did it why would he…"

"Why would he bring in the A-team to investigate a crime he perpetrated?" Ryan asked.

"Exactly." Beckett replied.

"If we're the A-team…" Castle said, "I think I'd be Face."

"I'm B.A." Esposito said.

Beckett and Ryan looked at each other. While Ryan heasitated, she said "Since you guys follow my lead, I guess that makes me Hannibal."

Ryan looked at the other three, getting stuck with being the plucky comic relief Murdock, the fourth member of the A-Team. "I don't want to play this game anymore. Back to the board, if we may?"

"Sorry, Ryan." Beckett said. "Now he'd been working there for six months, but his manager told us that for the past two, he's been more agitated and despondent."

"Which is a coincidence… because that is about the same time, _Ronald_ Kaminsky was released from prison." Ryan said, pointing to the middle section of the murder board. "Now, Ronald, also 40 years old, also raised in St. Louis. No college, began working for various businesses out of high school."

Castle looked up at the pictures of the two. Even his well trained eye couldn't spot any difference between the two. Same pointed nose, short, brown hair, small eyes. The only difference was Jeff's photo was his security photo from Lyman and Associates. In it, he was wearing a nice suit and tie, smiling broadly. Rondald's photo was a recent mugshot, wearing prison orange and most decidedly _not_ smiling. He pondered how two identical brothers could have found such diverse tracks to follow in life.

"Two years ago, Ronald is sent to prison for tax fraud." Ryan continued. "He was paroled two months ago for good behavior."

Beckett eyed the board. "Which brings us to the body in Jeff's apartment." She stood up, making a few extra notes. "Jeff's boss says that an intern stopped by about 11 yesterday morning. The super let her in, and no one was there. So sometime after yesterday about noon to 10 this morning is when he was shot. Lanie's working on a more exact time, along with the official cause. But at this point, it looks like a small caliber gunshot to the chest. Probably a twenty-two."

"And like Esposito said to Gates, since we don't know which brother we have, we have to initially examine possible motives against both brothers." Ryan finished.

While Beckett continued to take in all the information on the murder board, the three men around her all waited for orders. She may have just gotten back on the force ten minutes ago, but all four quickly settled back into old roles.

"Alright," She began, "Espo, you and I will work the Ronald angle. Find his parole officer; see where he was living and if there is anything else we may need to know."

"I'm on it" he said, retreating back to his desk.

"I'll look into his background, see if there's anything to indicate he may be a target for anyone else."

"You want us to work the Jeff angle?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. Find anything you can on him. Lyman said he was pretty quiet and kept to himself, which may indicate he was hiding something. Background, financials, whatever you can get your hands on. We'll let Lanie do her thing and she'll get us evidence on the body when it becomes available."

"Right." Ryan said, briskly walking to his desk to begin rounding up information.

Castle looked up. "What do I do?"

When Castle and Beckett first began working together, his talent for fiction was often a distraction. He'd look at the facts of a case, and begin to weave an intricate story that had enough twists to become his next novel. Often, they didn't prove fruitful. But sometimes, it was outside the box enough to spark another lead and reveal the solution. Over the years, the detectives expected these lavish interpretations, often building on them on their own.

"Any wild theories you care to share?" Beckett asked.

Castle thought for a moment. But the problems he was having writing his next book had seeped through into his crime solving talent as well. He couldn't think of a single one.

"Umm… Robbery?" He faked.

Beckett rumpled her brow in confusion. "Robbery?"

"We can't find his wallet."

Beckett threw this on the _pile of strange things Castle's been doing lately_. She was about to prod further into why he wasn't coming at her full throttle with an insane hypothesis, when Esposito called her over.

She decided to bring the lame robbery angle up with Castle another time, and began walking toward Esposito's desk, with Castle trailing behind. "What do you have?" She asked.

"Just got off the phone with Ronald's parole officer. Says he was a pretty model prisoner, but he did make one enemy while in there. A thug named Clay Eller made it his mission to make Ronald's life a living hell."

"Why?" Castle asked.

"Who knows. It's a different code in there." Esposito said. "But take a wild guess as to who was released from prison just two weeks ago?"

"I'm guessing it's our brute behind door number one?" Castle said.

"We have a winner." Esposito continued. "I also have the address Ronald was living at."

Beckett surveyed the team. "OK. Esposito and I will check out this address and continue with the Ronald angle."

"I've got Jeff's information on its way. Castle and I can pour over it when it gets here." Ryan said.

"I love it when a plan comes together." Becket said, quoting the cigar chomping leader of the A-Team. She grabbed her coat and slipped it on. Esposito did the same, while grabbing his keys and heading around his desk.

During the past three months, whenever Castle and Beckett went separate ways for a few hours, they would part with a long, tender kiss. Knowing this, Castle leaned in to Beckett for a repeat, but both suddenly realized they had an audience.

They looked at Esposito and Ryan, who didn't get the hint. They seemed confused why Caskett was looking at them. Castle's mind was in overdrive setting up a ruse. He remembered the one that Beckett had pulled on him earlier. He looked over Esposito's shoulder. "Guys… what the hell is that?" He said, pointing to the far wall and beginning to lean in towards Beckett.

Neither Esposito nor Ryan bothered to turn their heads, opting instead for a confused look in Castle's direction.

Simultaneously, the detectives got the suggestion. "Look… if you two wanted a moment… you coulda just said." Ryan said, getting up and grabbing Esposito's shoulder, leading him to the stairway.

Beckett and Castle watched them go, then looked each other in the eye, smiling.

"Hey." He said, stepping into her, sliding his hand around the back of her neck. "Be careful."

"Promise." She said, reaching up with her left hand, drawing his face to hers. They closed their eyes and kissed. It was actually the first real kiss they'd shared in the precinct. After he pulled away, he opened his eyes and said "Now remember, Esposito actually has a gun. So let him go in first, OK? Fight the urge to lead the way."

"OK." She smiled. "Don't let Ryan boss you around too much."

"Oh, don't worry about me. I'll have him doing my bidding in no time."

"Castle!" Ryan shouted from across the room. "Get over here. I just got the files."

"Coming, boss." Castle retorted.


	10. Chapter 10

After stopping off at the weapons locker and grabbing a police issue taser, Beckett and Esposito headed down to street level. Beckett was excited to be hitting the streets again in search of clues and suspects. Esposito was excited because he loved working with Beckett. They shared a wavelength similar to a brother and sister.

Esposito slid into the driver's side of his Crown Victoria, while Beckett was relegated to the passenger seat. It was a different experience for her. Usually, she drove; she wasn't used to riding shotgun.

They took the opportunity to update each other on the past three months. "Not much to tell." Esposito said. "Me and Ryan have been trying to keep up with work. It's been difficult for him; I think Jenny is asking him for more time at home." He dropped his voice to a whisper, indicating he knew a secret. "I think they're _trying_. But don't tell him I said that." Returning to his normal voice, he said "I've been covering for him the best I can but… I'm getting tired."

"Didn't Gates bring in another detective to replace me?" Beckett asked.

"Nope." Esposito said, shaking his head. "How about you? Things good with you and Castle?"

"Yeah. It's…" She struggled in finding the right mix of words. "It's familiar… yet new at the same time."

Esposito looked at her. "Was it worth the four years of waiting?"

She smiled. "Yes."

He smiled back. "Glad to hear that. We're really happy for you." He made a sharp right as the car muscled its way through the chilly noontime air toward their eventual destination. He had something he wanted to ask her. It was easier being confrontational with criminal suspects than it was with Beckett. Talking relationships was out of the realm of his expertise.

"I'm going to ask you a question. And I don't want to hear 'I don't know what you're talking about, Javier', I want a straight answer. Don't play with me. OK?"

"OK." Beckett replied, confused.

Esposito paused. "When are you going to tell him… that you want to come back?"

She looked at him. He was right. There was no use in trying to sidestep, because it was a question that she'd been asking herself ever since this morning. She looked forward, down the street. "I don't know."

"Doctor Phil always says that communication is key to a healthy relationship."

"You don't watch Doctor Phil."

"I may… you haven't called in three months. Maybe I watch Doctor Phil from time to time." He laughed. "The point is… you'd been waiting for this storybook romance to finally manifest itself and you're already keeping something from him."

She sighed. "It's just that… I think this is what he wants. Me all to himself, ready to do _whatever_ at a moment's notice."

Esposito had found the address and pulled into a parking spot. Shutting off the car, he made it a point to finish their conversation so they could be focused on the task at hand. "But are you truly happy?"

She paused. "Y… yeah." She said, unsure of her answer.

He pointed his face down, maintaining eye contact. _Really_? His expression said.

"OK. I'm happy when it's just us. But… sometimes I wish we could go back to how it was, working together. I miss telling someone that we got justice for their loved one." She swallowed, trying to defend her position. "But he's very happy. I think."

Esposito knew he had her cornered. "Beckett… believe me. That man is happy… when _you_ are happy. He doesn't care about anything else. If you're not truly happy, then he's not either." On that note, he opened the car door, ready to head up to Ronald Kaminsky's apartment. Beckett sat for a moment, taking in their conversation.

"You coming?" He said to her through the windshield.

She unlatched the car door, got out, and closed it gently. The pair began walking toward a rundown apartment building. Esposito's phone began buzzing. It was a text from Ronald's parole officer. It contained the mug shot of Clay Eller, the man who had been harassing Ronald in prison. He showed it to Beckett. An African-American man, about 30, very short hair, protruding ears, and a big, toothy grin. He seemed like one of those people who enjoyed being in the slammer. He'd been locked up for robbery and assault, which was just the last of a long list of crimes he'd been arrested for.

Walking into the lobby, the stench of alcohol was pretty powerful. Not as bad as college dorms, but still very noticeable. It gave the entire building a seedy aura. Kaminsky's apartment was number 2F, on the second floor, so they decided to take the stairwell.

"So how do you know they're trying?" Beckett asked Esposito, curious about the details about Ryan and his wife, Jenny.

"He hasn't said anything, but I just get a feeling."

"So can you look at a person and instantly tell when last time they has had sex was?" She laughed.

He played along for laughs. "Sure. Didn't you know that? That's my superpower!"

"What does your spidey-sense tell you about me?" She asked.

"I am not allowing my spidey-sense to tingle about you." He said, stopping short of the top of the stairs. He heard a banging up ahead. They peeked around a corner and saw an African American man trying to put his shoulder into a door repeatedly, as if he was trying to break in.

He was standing outside a door that was about 15 feet away from Esposito and Beckett. They looked at each other, not really knowing what to do. Looking at the door numbers along the hallway, Beckett determined that the door they were looking for, 2F, was the same one that this guy was trying to break into.

Esposito got out his badge. "NYPD… stop…"

Before he could say another word, the robber looked toward them. They instantly recognized him as Clay Eller, the man whose mug shot they had just viewed on Esposito's phone.

"Freeze!" Esposito shouted, but of course, the man took off running to the other end of the hallway and the second stairwell.

Beckett pushed Esposito's shoulder back to the stairwell they had just ascended. "Lobby!" she said.

Without saying a word, he knew her plan. He would run down to the lobby, she would pursue the suspect and flush him right to Esposito. She began running to the other stairwell, hoping that Eller wasn't planning on doubling back.

Unfortunately, he was waiting for her just out of sight inside the stairwell. Once she was close enough, he jumped out at her and tackled her around the waist, slamming her hard against the wall. A wave of pain swept through her entire back.

She managed to get one leg up into his groin and push him away. He took a few steps back and both combatants readied themselves. He was smiling. She was focused.

He ran at her with his left fist raised. He swung, but Beckett dodged it, pushing his arm away with both of hers. Unfortunately, that left her vulnerable for a punch from his right hand. His closed fist met her cheek, opening a cut on the side of her face. She didn't have time to feel the pain, as she reacted more quickly than Eller had anticipated. He seemed to be gloating about his well placed punch a little too long, as he didn't notice she was coming right back at him with her right elbow. Like A-Rod smacking a first pitch fastball in the sweet spot, there was an audible crack throughout the hallway as Eller yelled in pain.

He stumbled backward, blood gushing from his newly broken nose. Apparently he'd had enough. He began to reach behind his coat for a weapon, but Beckett was faster. She aimed quickly and fired. Her taser probes embedded themselves into his chest. She pulled the trigger, sending 50 thousand volts of electricity into Eller, disabling his nervous system. He went rigid, convulsing ever so slightly, before falling backwards on the floor.

Beckett walked over and flipped him onto his stomach, forcing both his hands behind him and slapping on the cuffs. He groaned in pain as the shock of the taser wore off.

At this point, Esposito came huffing and puffing up the stairwell that Eller had been hiding in. He looked at Beckett, then down at Eller, then back to her.

She looked up at him, smiling. "What took you so long?" She teased him.

"Sorry. Outta shape." He replied. He pointed to his own left cheek, and said "You have a little…"

She touched her own cheek and pulled it away, seeing crimson red dripping down her fingers. Esposito offered her his handkerchief, which she used to dab away the blood on her cheek. "Thanks."

Esposito nodded to her before giving his attention to Eller. "Mister Eller! What a coincidence meeting you here. Looking for someone?"

Beckett placed her hand on Eller's back to push herself up when she felt something under his jacket. Pulling it up, she saw a handgun tucked into his waistband. Taking it out, she showed it to Esposito. "A twenty two."

"Boy." Said Esposito. "It's just raining coincidences here, now isn't it?"


	11. Chapter 11

Back at the 12th, Ryan and Castle were pouring over sheets of information on Jeff Kaminsky. They didn't know exactly what they were looking for, but they would know it when they saw it. In the same vein that Beckett and Esposito worked well together, so did Castle and Ryan. They were both more cerebral. Whereas their counterparts preferred to kick down doors and get after it in the interrogation room, Castle and Ryan used the cumulative sum of the small details to piece together a mystery.

But in this case, Ryan was half looking for details in Castle's demeanor. Something was off, and he was beginning to understand why. Castle was quieter than normal. He seemed to be going through motions, keeping quiet.

In order to break the monotony of casework, Ryan decided to prod deeper into Castle's problems. "So. How's the next book coming?" He asked.

Exhaled, frowning. "Let's focus on this… shall we?"

This further confused Ryan. _Castle at a loss for words_? Something was seriously wrong. He hated to see his friend in this state. "That bad, huh?"

Castle wasn't listening. "Hmmm… Kaminsky has worked mostly state senate campaigns in Missouri and Michigan…"

Ryan pushed forward. "It's just that you seem a bit off-"

"I don't want to _talk about it_, Ryan!" Castle said sternly, looking him in the eye.

The two stared at each other for a moment across the table of the conference room. "OK." Ryan replied, slowly returning his attention to the stack of papers in front of him.

Castle sat there, feeling guilty about snapping at Ryan, but also understanding that bottling up his problems hadn't produced any solutions. If this was ever a time for outside the box thinking, this was it. Ryan knew him much better than Josh Lyman did.

He put his paper down on the table, followed by his hands. "I'm… sorry I snapped at you."

Ryan looked up. "No problem."

"You're wrong. It is a big problem. I've never…" he paused, lowering his voice in case anyone was nearby. "What I'm about to tell you, you _can't_ tell Beckett. At all."

Ryan nodded his understanding.

"I can't write." Castle said. "I don't know what it is. I have the research done, I have the story outlined. But I sit down," he raised his hands to the side of his head in frustration, "and nothing comes out."

Ryan listened patiently. "And why don't you want Beckett to know?"

"I don't want her to know… because I'm afraid… that our relationship is the problem."

"And you're afraid that if she thinks that…"

"I won't be put in a position where I have to choose between her and my writing. But I don't want her to think I am in that position."

Ryan looked skeptical. "Because if you did have to choose…"

"I can't write Nikki Heat without Kate in my life. She'd win."

"And you think she'd blame herself for taking that away from you."

Castle nodded. "Yes… but unless I find out how to break this… I'm still stuck."

Leaning back in his chair, Ryan began thinking of possible solutions. "What have you tried?"

"Everything." Castle said without hesitating. "I've had difficult patches before, but this… this is winning. And I have no idea how to fight back."

"Well, I don't know how much help I can be, never having been in that situation. Have you talked to any of your writer friends about it?"

"Yeah." Castle said, sighing. "One of them said that the Nikki Heat books were essentially 300 page love letters to her. That I was trying to impress her."

Ryan thought about that for a moment. "I can see that, yeah."

"And now that I'm…"

"Feeling the heat?"

Castle nodded his approval. "Right… my motivation has escaped and is flying around out there somewhere in the 'verse."

Ryan was confused. "So you think… that just because now you're _with_ Beckett… you can _stop_ trying to impress her?" Castle looked at him. "I don't think it works like that my friend. Every morning when I wake up, it is my goal to make Jenny laugh at least once before I go off to work. I'm constantly trying to impress her."

Castle began to understand what Ryan was talking about. "It's been difficult lately. I think she's been a bit sad. Well, up until today that is. I haven't seen her smile like this in a good month."

"Now who's in a position choosing between work and love?"

Castle looked down at the sheet in front of him. He still felt that he was in an impossible situation, but maybe a solution was beginning to illuminate for him. The paper he was looking at came out of the folder of Jeff Kaminsky's financials. Going down the page, one number stood out. It contained lots of zeroes.

"WHOAH!"

"You got something?"

Castle's eyes flew over the page, taking it all in. "Two days ago, Kaminsky had a transfer into one of his accounts in the amount of five hundred _thousand_ dollars. Yesterday, he withdrew everything from that account. In cash."

"You have an account number from where it came?"

Castle looked up, smiling. "Of course!"

Both of them shot up and out of their seats, nearly sprinting to Ryan's desk. He began to use his computer to search what account gave Kaminsky all the money. Castle looked over his shoulder, understanding how to read the information that the police department programs gave. When the name came up, the two looked at each other.  
"Now that's a great twist!" Castle said.

The account that transferred the money was the reelection fund of Senator Anne Marie McCarty.

"Good morning, motive!" Ryan exclaimed as he grabbed his jacket and keys.

#############

Beckett and Esposito had sent Clay Eller back to the precinct with a squad, who would get him some medical attention and book him. After that, they surveyed Ronald Kaminsky's apartment, but there was no sign of him. It was a lot like his brother's apartment, very empty, but more grimy. But they figured that a guy recently out of prison couldn't be too choosy. They hoped that eventually he'd come in, or be found by the uniforms so they could talk to him. For now, they had a pretty good lead heading to the interrogation room.

While checking out the bathroom for anything, Beckett noticed that she had gotten blood on her white blouse. She didn't know if it was hers of Eller's, but since she didn't have any change of clothes at the 12th, she told Esposito she needed to change before getting back to the precinct. Her apartment was 20 minutes the other way, while Castle's loft was just a five minute detour from where they were.

Esposito pulled up to the building. "I'll be right back." Beckett told him.

"Take your time. I'll call Ryan, see where they are and let him know we've got a suspect."

Inside the loft, Beckett found a dark red shirt that would go with her suit. Thankfully, her jacket was spared any stains and she didn't have to change that. She peeled off the white blouse, wondering if she should just toss it or try and salvage it. Walking into the bathroom, she threw it in the garbage.

She washed the cut on her face, and applied two butterfly Band-Aids to keep the sides of it connected. A bruise had started to form, but she didn't bother hiding it with makeup. She thought it made her look badass.

She walked back into the bedroom when she heard a knocking on the door. _Probably Esposito_, she thought. She quickly pulled the red blouse on, grabbed her suit coat and jacket and walked toward the door. Opening it, she was surprised at who was standing there.

Instead of the friendly faced mountain of muscle that was Esposito, it was a tall, blonde professional woman who didn't look happy. It was Gina Griffin, Castle's current publisher and former spouse.

It took both of the women a moment to process what was going on. Beckett had expected to see Esposito. Gina had expected to see Rick.

Beckett managed to speak first. "Gina… Hi…"

"Kate… I didn't realize you were… _here_."  
"I didn't realize you were… _there_." Beckett retorted. She thought that Castle would have thought it was a funny line.

It occurred to Beckett that Gina may not have heard about their recent coupling. With some of his high profile paramours, Castle had been eager to appear on page 6. But with Kate, none of that mattered to him. Unless Castle had specifically _told_ Gina about them, this may be the first she was learning about Caskett.

Gina was speechless for a moment. Kate could see the gears turning in her mind as she figured it out. Beckett didn't think that Gina would have anything to be mad at her about, but with ex-wives you never knew. And with ex-wives who published their ex-husbands books, Beckett didn't know what would transpire.

Searching for some topic to get started, Gina laid her eyes on Beckett's bruise and band-aids. "What the hell happened to you?" Gina said, looking at Kate's face.

Kate smiled. "Shoulda seen the other guy."

Gina didn't seem impressed. "Is Rick here?"

"No. He's not; we're working a case with the police department. He was at the precinct when I left."

Gina was visibly frustrated. "Well that's par for the course." She looked at Beckett, slowly understanding the current situation. "Maybe it's _you_ I should be talking to anyway."

"Me? Why would you need to talk to me?"

"Because I've tried calling, I've tried texting, I've tried emailing and he won't return anything. I need to know where he's at."

"Where he's at?"

"With the book. He's two weeks late with his first three chapters."

Beckett shot Gina a confused look.

"The next Nikki Heat book? Those books that pay his bills? You're not distracting him are you?"

Beckett shook her head. "No, no I've been giving him plenty of time to work."

Gina took a step forward. She was naturally tall, but with the heels, she towered over Beckett. "Look," she said dropping her frustrated voice for a more condescending one. "Just so there's nothing awkward between us, I don't care what you do with my ex-husband. I really don't. But I do care if you are the reason my star writer is falling behind."

Beckett's mind began to swirl. He did seem more agitated lately. Could this be the reason? But it didn't make any sense that he wouldn't talk to her about it.

"I'll let him know." Beckett said, forcing a smile.

"Thank you." Gina eyed her up and down. "I like your suit." She said, before pivoting around and leaving. Kate shut the door behind her. She didn't want to get stuck in an elevator with her beau's ex anymore than she wanted to have any type of conversation with her.

Needing a reset on her day, she put her coat and jacket on the edge of the chair as she strode over to the kitchen. She poured a shot of vodka, downing it just as quickly. It wasn't completely within the police rulebook to drink while on duty, but one shot couldn't hurt, she thought. Plus, after the conversation she'd just had, she needed it.

Allowing the burning of the vodka to reach her stomach and linger in her throat for a moment, she readied herself to return to the car.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Author's note:**_

_**Thanks for all the kind reviews! This has been an interesting experence writing the story. I do have some fluff upcoming, so for those looking for that, don't worry. ** _

After Beckett left the car, Esposito got his phone out and dialed Ryan, who was in an elevator riding up to the offices of Senator McCarty. Esposito told Ryan about the visit to Ronald Kaminsky's apartment, while Ryan relayed the information about the wire transfer from the Senator's reelection campaign.

"When we finish up, we'll head on back. Regroup at the murder board." Ryan finished.

"Sounds good. And hey…" Esposito continued.

"What?"

"We didn't get a chance to eat anything for lunch. If you can, get Castle to bring some food."

Ryan looked over at Castle, who was waiting patiently to hear the update once Ryan was off the phone. "I'll see what I can do. Later."

"Later." The two hung up.

Immediately, Castle looked over at Ryan. "Did they find anything?"

"You're not going to believe this…"

At that moment, the door to the elevator opened, and standing on the other side was a very agitated Josh Lyman. He had been waiting outside the elevator doors. "Mister Castle. I'm only kinda glad to see you."

"Mister Lyman. I forgot you were going to be here." He motioned to Ryan. "This is Detective Ryan."

"Detective…" Josh said, extending his hand.  
"Mister Lyman…" Ryan returned.

Lyman turned toward Castle. "Something has happened. I don't know what. I've been here for a half hour and can't get in to see the Senator."

Castle looked at Ryan. "See if your golden ticket can get us in."

"Right."

Ryan walked toward the receptionist's desk, getting his badge out. Castle looked at Josh. He had experience in breaking bad news, and Lyman seemed to be a no-nonsense kind of a guy, so Castle decided to let it all out.

"I think we know why the office is bustling. We found out that Jeff got a wire transfer of five hundred thousand dollars… from the Senator's reelection funds."

Josh looked at him in stunned disbelief. Castle looked back at him, allowing him to soak in the information.

Lyman turned around, clearly very frustrated. Putting one hand on the wall, working through it. After a beat, he turned around swiftly and walked back to Castle. "But if it was transferred electronically, is there a chance we can trace it down? Get it back?"

"No. He transferred it two days ago, and took it all out in cash yesterday when he was missing. Unless we can find the actual money…"

Lyman twirled around, having been dealt another blow, while Ryan strode back up. "They're going to get us in soon."

"I'll tell her." Lyman said.

The receptionist led the three of them back to the Senator's main office. Castle was racking his brain trying to remember what he knew about Senator Anne Marie McCarty. He knew that she had a reputation of being able to scare junior members of congress, but also she was incredibly likeable in front of the camera.

The main office was somewhat calmer than the rest of the office. The Senator was standing at her desk, examining a piece of paper. She was tall, which probably helped her intimidate her peers in Washington. Her 55 years had begun graying her auburn hair, which she had combated quite expertly with coloring. Her navy skirt and jacket helped offset her pale skin. She reminded Castle of a certain tall, alien butt-kicking actress.

She had someone helping her. A man in a brown suit was flying around the room, gathering information from one source or another. He was in his early 30's, very muscular, with short black hair that made him look like a former marine. When the receptionist, Castle, Ryan and Lyman came into the room, the man looked up and came over.  
"Mister Lyman. We're a little busy here. What do you want?" he said, with an abundance of annoyance.

Josh motioned to Castle and Ryan. "Hudson, this is Detective Ryan with the NYPD, and this is Richard Castle. He's a consultant with the department. Guys, this is the Senator's chief of staff, Tom Hudson."

Castle and Ryan nodded hello.

"NYPD… we were about to call you guys." Hudson started.

Castle looked over at Josh, who was making serious eye contact with the floor. "Does this have anything to do with five hundred thousand dollars missing from your reelection campaign?" Castle started.

This earned the complete and full attention of the Senator, who put down her paper and stared at Castle. "How do you know about this?" she said.

Josh finally spoke up again. "The detective has evidence that…" he exhaled deeply, knowing that he was about to damage his reputation, "Jeff Kaminksy stole it."

Hudson turned around to face the senator. "I told you… I _told you_ that bringing him on was a bad idea!" Hudson's anger quickly boiled to a head as he stood about as close to Lyman as one could without touching. "Just wait until I get my hands on him. He's dog meat pal!"

"Hudson, you secure that mouth." The senator said is a strong tone.

Gradually, her chief of staff backed down. He turned to the senator. "Still… when I get my hands on that little prick, I'll kill him."

Castle and Ryan looked at each other. Maybe they'd be able to bring in a suspect of their own today.

McCarty, still dealing the news and a boatload of anger, looked in Ryan's direction. "So what… are you from robbery? Here to help us track down the money?"

Ryan, somewhat timidly, stepped forward. "No, Ma'am. I'm from homicide."

"Homicide?"

"That's right senator. We found a body in Jeff Kaminsky's apartment this morning. It looks like him."

"What do you mean it looks like him? Can't you properly identify a body?"

"The challenge is…" Castle began, "that Jeff has an identical twin. The fingerprints on the corpse were compromised. We're working on another way to identify which twin is dead."

"At this point, we're still looking for the living twin. And we have to consider possible motives against both brothers, which is when we came across the wire transfer this morning." Ryan finished.

Castle was able to gauge a small amount of surprise in the Senator, but he thought she must be a damn fine poker player. She was looking at Ryan. "So you're here to determine of this theft provided motive enough to kill him."

Ryan tried not to look surprised. Not many people anticipated his moves. "Yes."

She threw her hands up. "We discovered the missing money this morning during a normal financial audit. We were in the process of trying to find out where it went when you showed up. We didn't know it was Jeff until you told us."

With that line of questioning out of the way, Ryan began prodding in different directions. "Was there anyone here that had a problem with him?"

With the new direction, the Senator came around her desk to stand in front of Castle and Ryan. "Not that I know of. His input had pulled us even recently in the polls."

Castle looked at Josh, who was nodding his head and pointing his eyes in the direction of Hudson. He was trying to nonverbally pass a message to Castle. The writer got the clue. "You had some pretty harsh words toward Kaminsky." Castle said to the Chief of Staff. "Sounds like you didn't like him very much."

Tom Hudson turned to face Castle, more agitated than before. "What are you accusing me of?"

McCarty became annoyed by her employee. "He's putting two and two together. You just threatened Jeff's life thirty seconds ago, and now we find out he may be dead." She shook her head. "You and your stupid mouth."

Hudson looked at Ryan and Castle, not a tad panicked. "Look… I didn't like some of his advice, and we didn't get along very well, but I'd never kill him. Even if I knew he took the money."

"Where were you last night?" Ryan asked.

Hudson looked to the Senator, thinking that Ryan was being unfair. "I worked here last night until 11 and then I went home, slept, and was back here at 8."

"Can anyone verify that you were at home that whole time?"

"No one besides my cat." He replied.

While Ryan thought that Hudson may have had opportunity, and a slight motive, he didn't have enough to haul him to the precinct. "I'll need acess to Jeff's computer, along with any record of communication that he's had with anyone."

"I will have one of our employees organize everything you need." The Senator began. "He didn't' have a desk or regular workspace here, but I will grant you access to his login on our network."

"Thank you, Senator." Ryan said.

She put her hand to her temple, to deal with the stress. "The press is going to have a field day with this. They mostly come at night. Mostly." She looked at Ryan and Castle. "I'm hoping that finding the identity of the killer will help you in recovering my lost funds." She told him, turned around, and turned back to her desk. Castle, Ryan, and Lyman began leaving the office.

Once they were outside, Josh grabbed Castle by the shoulder and pulled him close to tell him something in confidence. "Mister Castle…"

Rick turned to face him, with Ryan slowing his pace to a stop, waiting. "Yes?"

"I know that your main goal is to find whoever killed Jeff. Or Ronald. Whoever it is that's dead. I don't want to sound unfeeling, and I hope you're successful. But if there is any way to get the Senator's funds back to her, that would really help me out."

Castle nodded his understanding.

"I was the one who brought Jeff into this office. If it gets out that one of my employees was successful in stealing a half a million dollars from her, my business could be ruined."


	13. Chapter 13

Castle and Ryan made their way back from Senator McCarthy's office to the 12th, only detouring at a deli around the corner to pick up a late lunch for the four. Castle knew what Beckett wanted. Ryan got a text from Esposito with his order. Castle assumed that Ryan had Espo's tastes in his memory.

"You even know what he likes on his sandwich. That's so cute." He teased.

As they ascended the stairs, Esposito and Beckett were at the murder board, adding details. Castle almost felt that it had been a month since he saw her last; he was so elated to see her. Again, that smile that had become so prevalent today was prominently displayed as she interacted with her partner.

"Hey!" Castle said, walking up with Ryan, who was carrying lunch. "I only hope your developments are as interesting as ours…"

At this, Beckett and Esposito turned. Castle made eye contact with her, but he was immediately drawn to the white butterfly Band-Aids, accented by the purple bruise on her cheek.

He immediately stopped. "Whoa! What happened?" His voice was dripping with concern.

"Looks like someone hit you with their best shot." Ryan said, looking closer at her face.

Beckett smiled. "Well, I _am_ a real tough cookie with a long history…"

"You should see the other guy!" Esposito said, smiling.

Ryan held up the bag of food, peaking Esposito's interest. The two went back to Ryan's desk to divide everything up.

Castle's concern for Beckett's well being hadn't lessened in the least. He raised his hand, holding her head and rubbing his thumb over her bruise gentle enough not to hurt her. She could tell he was overly concerned.

"Don't worry about it." She told him.

"But I do worry."

"Look, just because we're…"

"I've worried ever since that first case."

She smiled. "It is a rough job, Castle. I'm a big girl."

He took her hand in his free one. "Still. I told you to let Esposito go first."

"Can you get me my lunch?"

He smiled. "Sure."

Castle let go of her, and strode up to Esposito's desk. He had wolfed down half his corned beef sandwich already. Ryan had retreated to his desk with his container of chowder. Castle switched his demeanor from concerned to upset as he walked up to Esposito.

"What the hell?" He asked in a whisper, doing his best to keep the conversation private while in the middle of a room full of people.

"What?" Esposito asked, a wad of beef in his cheek.

"You were supposed to look out for her. I leave her with you for one morning, and she gets beat up?"

"Hey, man…"  
"She's been off the force for three months. She's not armed. You were supposed to be looking out for her!" Castle was doing a good job of conveying anger without raising his voice.

Esposito had never seen Castle this mad before. It doubled the shock that the anger was directed at him. "Look, Castle… it's a tough job!"

"_The hell it is_!" Castle shouted, earning the attention of everybody on the floor. While Esposito felt he was in the right, he still stood up to look Castle in the eye. Castle, meanwhile, was fully prepared to fight Esposito with as many words as it took. However, if fists got involved, it would be a short fight, so he was content to keep it verbal.

Beckett and Ryan looked over to see what was going on, and then looked at each other with worry. They quickly walked over to Castle and Esposito, hoping to calm the situation before Captain Gates noticed anything. As of right now, she was on the phone.

While the pair continued to jaw at each other, Beckett slipped in between them and began pushing Castle towards the break room. Once they were clear, Ryan stepped in and began pushing Esposito into the conference room.

Once inside, Ryan closed the door. "Look, something's going on with him." He told Esposito. "He's beyond frustrated about something else and he's taking it out on you."

"So I'm not supposed to defend myself? It wasn't my fault…"

"I know it wasn't. Beckett knows it wasn't. In time, he'll know it too. But I've never seen him like this. Those two have some serious issues that they're working through. And until they do, we've got to do our best to not get involved."

Esposito looked at him. "Don't you think this is one of those situations we _should_ get involved?"

"Not… this time. No."

Meanwhile, in the break room, Beckett was doing her best to silence Castle, but was losing the battle. His mouth was going a mile a minute, not allowing her to interject at all. Finally, she'd had it. "Richard… shut your mouth."

This finally earned his attention enough. He stopped yelling long enough to look her in the eye.

"Try not to panic." In the fights they'd had as sleuth partners, yelling and anger were usually involved. But Beckett decided to take a different approach, now understanding why he had been so distant the past few weeks.

"I know you're not mad at Esposito. You're not mad at me. You're mad at _yourself_."

He exhaled, breaking eye contact and looking around the room at anything but her.

"You said you've been worrying about me since the first case. But now you think that because we're together, it's your job to be my protector and look after me. And the first time we're apart for more than an hour I get hit by a suspect."

"I told Esposito to look out for you… you've been away from the game for three months…"

"And I didn't have an issue… I know. But this…" she said, reaching up with her hand to his face, "is a rough job. But I can handle it."

"But if anything happens to you…"

"Then you'll experience what the significant others of hundreds of cops do every year. Risk is our game. And I can't change that."

Castle had no retort for that. There was no use arguing with someone who had the right argument, especially Beckett.

"I'm sorry… but if you didn't want this type of worry, then you shouldn't have fallen in love with a cop. Look, we're still kind of figuring this whole thing out. I know how you feel about me, but you can't fly off the handle every time I get a little scratch."

He looked at her. With a sad look, he acquiesced. "OK. I'll try."

She smiled. "You can't prevent me from getting boo-boos. But you do get to kiss them and make them feel better."

That line managed to pull a smile out of Castle, indicating to Beckett that her point had been made. She grabbed his hand and led him back to the bullpen. Esposito and Ryan were near the entrance of the conference room. By now Gates had realized the commotion and left her office, looking at the four of them.

"Is there a problem out here?"

Esposito and Castle looked at each other. "Nope. No problem here." Esposito said.

"No problem." Castle continued. "I forgot the extra ketchup. The man loves his ketchup."

Esposito laughed. Gates spun back around. The four met at Esposito's desk. Beckett, still holding Castle's hand, prompted him with a head nod in Esposito's direction.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. I shouldn't have…"

"Yeah. You should have. I get it. No hard feelings." They shook hands.

Over the next ten minutes, they ate their late lunch, Beckett and Esposito detailed their trip to Ronald Kaminsky's apartment, and meeting Clay Eller there. Castle and Ryan provided the facts about their revelation in Jeff Kaminsky's financials, and their trip to Senator McCarty's office.

As they were wrapping up, the elevator opened and two uniforms escorted a handcuffed man into the bullpen. Castle looked at him. He'd seen better days. The man had on a huge bandage over his nose to protect it. It had obviously been broken recently. He had on a clean shirt, but blood spots on the man's pants led Castle to believe that the guy's old shirt must have been caked in blood. The man stumbled, in obvious pain; as the uniforms led him to interrogation room one.

"Ouch." Castle said aloud. "What the hell happened to that guy?"  
Esposito smiled a big toothy grin. "That's the _other_ guy."

A moment of confusion swept over Castle as he looked at Beckett, who was doing her best to hide her prideful smile as she got up to prepare for the interrogation.

"_That's_ the other guy?" He asked her, almost congratulatory.

"I told you… tough cookie." She said, pointing at herself as she and Esposito began heading toward the room.


	14. Chapter 14

As Beckett and Esposito went into the interrogation room to confront Clay Eller, Ryan and Castle watched from observation. Ryan laughed, shaking his head. "Hardened ex-con with a gun versus a 120 pound chick with a taser. Who ya got?"

"Do you know what I find funny about tasers?" Castle asked.

"Funny?"

"Yeah. Why every news report about them has to include a shot of the reporter having themselves tased."

Ryan thought about that. "Yeah. That is pretty funny."

"They always say 'to show how effective a taser is, I will have myself tased.' Are there people out there who think that getting tased is equivalent to getting blasted with a taco fart?"

"And… they always get back up and say 'wow, that hurt'. No s#!t, Sherlock."

"I wonder who first suggested to a reporter that getting tased for a story was a good idea."

"I'd bet my pension that it was a cop."

The two turned back toward the window. Ryan kept his eyes on the suspect. Castle was eyeing Beckett's backside.

"Mister Eller," Beckett began, "You look like you've seen better days. Care to tell me how a guy just two weeks out of prison gets caught assaulting a police officer while carrying a loaded firearm?"

Eller didn't make any eye contact. He let out a little laugh. He seemed to be amused by this whole situation.

"We have a history of you threatening Ronald Kaminsky while in prison. Now I've got a dead body… with a 22 hole in his chest. And we just happen to find a 22 on you."

Still no response.

Beckett looked at Esposito, who knew that it was no his turn. "Did you know that Ronald had an identical twin? Unfortunately, it appears that you didn't off Ronald Kaminsky. We found the body of his identical twin brother, Jeff."

At this, Eller finally looked at them. His smug expression had faded and a panicked one had set in. "What're you talkin about?"

"The body we found," Beckett began, "the one with the 22 slug in it, which I'm guessing came from your gun, was _Jeff_ Kaminsky's. He was big into politics. Got some powerful friends that I'm sure would lean on the DA and the judge in your case to make sure you got the maximum."

"Where were you last night?" Esposito asked.

It was clear from his expression that Clay Eller was done talking. He'd been through this enough to know he didn't have to talk, even if it implicated his guilt. But his demeanor suggested to Beckett that he thought he had killed Ronald, but just learned that he had failed.

Beckett kept her gaze on him for a beat longer, just to make sure he was done talking. She then turned to Esposito, who got up from his seat and the two of them left the room, telling the uniform outside the door to take him down to lockup and book him.

Castle and Ryan exited the observation room, following their partners to the murder board. Beckett stopped in front of it, looking at the photo of Eller, while biting her lower lip and thinking.

"What's on your mind?" Castle asked.

"You tell me." She thought that maybe having him think a bit would help along his writing troubles.

"You're thinking that most of the clues in this case make it look cut and dry. Eller had something against Ronald. So when he got out, he hunted Ronald down, but instead killed Jeff by mistake."

"But there's one thing that doesn't fit."

"The acid on the fingertips."

"Right. Why would Eller, who doesn't seem to be a master criminal, use acid to burn off the fingerprints of the body? He didn't even seem to know that Ronald had a twin. Why would he bother removing fingerprints that way if he didn't know that?"

Castle speculated. "Maybe Jeff had them removed."

"But those scars were fresh. It had to have been done around the time of the murder."

Ryan spoke up. "So… we just wait for Lanie to finish her work?"

"We've got a few things we can do in the meantime." Beckett said. "You guys look more into Eller's background with Kaminsky in prison. Why was he after Ronald so bad? That may lead us to something."

"You got it." Esposito said, standing up with Ryan and retreating to their desks.

"What do we do?" Castle asked.

Before Beckett could talk, a voice came from behind her. "Mister Castle?"

She turned around to see who it was. There stood two men, each carrying three file boxes stacked upon each other. "Yes?" Castle said, confused.

"We're from Senator McCarty's office. We have the communications and other documents from Jeff Kaminsky that you requested this morning."

Beckett spun back toward Castle, happy to have something to do. "I guess we're looking through communications and other documents for the afternoon."

Castle raised his hands in a sarcastic celebration. "Yay." He said.

The next few hours were spent pouring over the documents. Whenever Castle began to get bored, he'd peer over the piece of paper he was looking at to check on her. She knew he was watching, but didn't give in to look back up. She didn't mind that he was observing.

While the document searching took up a good portion of the afternoon, it didn't provide any new leads. The only thing that Esposito and Ryan came up with was that when they were in prison, Eller was looking to make an example of Kaminsky, but Ronald fought back. Ever since that day, there were multiple incident reports about the two. Mainly of Eller harassing Kaminsky. Why he needed to continue the antagonizing after both were out was a mystery. And one that Clay Eller didn't seem too interested in sharing.

As 6 pm rolled around, they were still getting nowhere. Beckett thought it was a good place to stop for the evening. Hopefully by morning, the other Kaminsky would be found, or Lanie would have some more answers. She and Castle boxed up the items they had gone through, consolidating the unchecked documents to one box, which she carried over to Ryan's desk.

"Hey. I think it's time to call it a night. We've got a good start on this one."

Ryan immediately put his phone down, and managed to turn his computer off while putting his jacket on at the same time.

"We've got a bit more to look through if either of you want to take some home." She said.

"Oh. Um. Sorry. Jenny's got this thing planned… and I'm already late as it is." Ryan said.

Beckett could see Esposito close his eyes in frustration and exhaustion. This was him covering for Ryan and his conception demands. "I'll take it." Esposito said in the most unenthusiastic voice he'd ever uttered.

Beckett looked at Castle, who didn't have an expression that gave away any feeling. "That's OK, Espo. I'll take it. We'll swing by the ME's on our way home to see if Lanie has anything for us."

Esposito responded by putting his hands together, as he would if he were praying. "Thank you." He mouthed, grabbing his stuff and leaving close behind Ryan.

Castle looked at her. "You're not burned out yet?"

"I haven't had this type of stuff to look over for three months. I figured I was due." She said. "Plus… someone has some writing they need to do." she poked him in the chest.

They hailed a cab outside the precinct, riding it to the ME's office to visit Lanie and check on her progress. Halfway there, the ME called Beckett on her cell phone.

"Where are you?"

"In a cab. Coming to see you."

"That's good. If you can give your driver an extra tip for getting you here an hour ago, that would be great."

Beckett smiled. "Do you have a hot date you're ready for?"

"Well, yes. As a matter of fact I do, but we have much to discuss before that happens."

"We can do girls night some other time."

"Oh, no. This is about your dead body. You really need to get here soon."


	15. Chapter 15

Castle and Beckett each pushed open one of the double doors that led into the ME office's morgue. Before them was Dr. Lanie Parish, dressed to the nines in a black satin dress. Castle thought that he saw the faintest pinstripe Castle had ever seen. He didn't think women wore pinstripes. Lanie stood over the body of the dead Kaminsky brother, which was laid out on the table in front o fher.

"Wow." Castle said, eyeing her up and down. "Please tell me that the MD at the end of your name stands for majestic…" he searched his mind for a completion. The women looked at him while his gears turned. "… Dame." _Whew_.

Beckett turned back to Lanie. "You look great! Who's the guy?"

"See, this is what happens when we don't have a girl's night for three months. I've got much, much to tell you, but I don't have the time. All I will say is that he works for the Yankees."

Castle's interest exploded into a verbal assult. "Who is it? Hernandez? Powell? What about Calhoun? He's been on a tear lately. Were you his slumpbuster?"

Lanie peered into his eyes. "I don't know what a slumpbuster is, but I'm assuming it's bad. If I hadn't just had my nails done, I'd punch you in the brain." Castle backed off. "Besides, I had my _Bull_ _Durham_ summer years ago. After that, I said I'd never date another ball player again. No, he's an executive with the team."

Beckett nodded her approval. "Is that why you got out the pinstripes?"

Lanie smiled, holding up her arms to show off the dress. "Why not? It's what the champs wear."

"What do you have for us?"

"OK. I've got good news and bad news. I know that usually you want the bad news first, but since you didn't call for three months, I'm going to give you the _good_ news first."

The pair nodded.

"And another thing… why is it every time you two bring a body into my office it immediately becomes the most complicated case I've ever dealt with?"

Castle nodded at Beckett. "She's only happy when it's complicated. Let's hear it."

"The good news is that the slug we pulled out of his chest is a match for the 22 you brought in earlier."

Beckett frowned. "Well, that was easy. Clay Eller's gun was the one that shot Kaminsky dead."

"Mmmmmmm… hold up that prosecution train just a moment." Lanie said.

"Why?" Beckett and Castle asked in unison.

"While the bullet was what stopped his heart, in my medical opinion, he was already dead. Brain dead."

"How can you tell?" Beckett asked.

"We ran normal tox screens for his blood. Nothing out of the ordinary except for one little thing. It was something I hadn't seen before, so we tested it again, and his blood was loaded with a highly potent neurotoxin."

Beckett looked at her. "And there's no way this could have been injected after his death?"

"Nope. If his heart had stopped before injecting the toxin, it wouldn't have been as prevalent throughout his body. In my medical opinion, he was shot and his heart stopped beating between 1 and 2 am. But the toxin could have been injected into his body either one or two hours before that."

While Beckett was working out the timeline in her head, Castle had questions about the toxin. "What is the toxin he was injected with?"

"It took a while to track it down. It's a synthetic called Q-3. There are three labs in the city with the capability of making it. They're in the report."

"How did it get into his blood?"

"This is where our killer got a little tricky." She bent down to grab the head of the body, turning it ever so slightly so Castle and Beckett could see the back of his head. Lanie moved some hair around to reveal a small red dot just above the base of the neck, a few inches into his hairline. "They tried to hide the needle insertion point, putting it just under the skull, hiding it in the hair."

"What about the fingers?" Castle asked.

"They're fresh wounds alright." Lanie continued. "It's very possible that he was injected with the toxin, then had his fingerprints burned off, and a few hours later, he was shot with the 22."

Beckett was curious about something. "Do you know what effects this toxin has?"

"With the dose he got, my best guess is that he was instantly paralyzed, leaving him incapable of moving. His essential functions kept going, but were slowing down. If he hadn't been shot, he would have been dead within another hour."

Beckett and Castle looked at each other, taking in everything.

"And of course, there is a certain level of macabre here. While his body couldn't send out signals to move, his brain was receiving signals of pain. If his fingerprints were burned off after he was injected with the toxin…"

"He felt everything." Beckett finished.

Lanie nodded. Slowly, she picked up a large folder, which contained a copy of her report, and handed it to Beckett.

Kate took it. "Have fun on your date."

##########

Neither Castle nor Beckett felt like cooking, both wanted to go home as quickly as possible. They opted for takeout from a Chinese place around the corner from the loft. They walked back, Castle carrying the box of documents from the Senator's office, while Beckett had the bag of takeout in one hand and the folder from Lanie in the other. She had been looking for a moment to bring up what she had learned from Gina earlier. The timing hadn't quite been right.

But when the elevator doors closed to pull them up to the right floor of the building, she took her chance.

"Are you having trouble writing?" She asked.

Castle hesitated. In trying to think up a lie, Beckett knew the answer. He surrendered to the notion that she knew what he was going through. "Did Ryan tell you?"

"No, Gina told me."

The two of them paused, and then looked at each other.

"Why did you tell _Ryan_?"

"When did you talk to _Gina_?" They asked simultaneously.

Both realized that they had each been guilty of keeping something from the other.

Beckett cocked her head backward. Castle's eyebrows narrowed.

"Even?" They said in unison, before immediately turning forward.

Thoughts started churning in Beckett's mind. How would she explain the conversation with Gina? Why didn't Castle tell her about his troubles? And "Why did you tell Ryan?"

Castle was backed into a corner. Thankfully for him, the elevator doors opened to his floor. Usually, he let her go first, but this time he took the lead, hoping she'd forget the question before they got to his front door. She didn't.

"I mean, I've thought that something's going on…"

He put the key in the door and unlocked it.

"… but if you needed help, I don't know why you'd ask Ryan and not me…"

He opened the door and they both went in.

"… unless you think that it's something about me that's the problem."

He shut the door. And looked into her eyes. He didn't have to say anything to let her know she was right. Beckett didn't know how to react. She'd gone through such a range of emotions in being Castle's inspiration to write that being the reason he couldn't was a punch to the gut.

"It's not you." He said, pivoting back around to head into the kitchen. He put the box of information on the table, and started for the cupboard to get plates.

Beckett re-set herself before walking over with the food. "Then why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Precisely for this reason. Now you _think_ it's you that's the problem. But it's not, so don't worry about it."

"But is this normal for you?"

"How would I know? I gave up on normal a long time ago." He said, meeting her back at the table. "Yes. I'm having troubles that are rather, unique to my career. Never having had them before, I'm still working my way through on how to deal with them."

"But if there's something wrong, I want to help you through it. I don't like to see you agitated like this."

He began to take the takeout out of the bag and set it on the table. "Today, you said that even though we're together now, that I can't be your protector all the time. Even though you're spending your days chasing down murder suspects and ex cons."

She nodded.

"Well, for the same reason, you can't be my psychology prescribing writing coach either. I understand the situation and I'm working through it. You have a rough job, and I can't protect you. I get it. But I have a rather unique job, too. And it's one that I wrestle with on my own. It's the kind of thing that when inspiration happens, it happens."

She grabbed his hand. "What if it doesn't?" She asked.

"It will." He returned without hesitation.

She swallowed hard. She wanted to help him, even if it meant sacrificing a bit of herself. "Do you want me to stay at my place tonight?"

He looked at her. "No."

"What do you want me to do?"

He looked at the table of food and smiled. "First, I need you to help me eat all this food. Because the last time I ate this much Chinese by myself, I had to roll from room to room."

Finally, she laughed.

"Then I'll need you to go over all this." He motioned to the box and file. "Believe it or not, my inspiration may have been striking all day."


	16. Chapter 16

Over dinner, they didn't want to discuss writing. So they went back to the case they'd been on all day. But throwing ideas off each other was their idea of fun. Beckett asked him what he'd call a book that was based on this murder. _Twin Killing, Double Slay, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Dead_? Were the ones that garnered the most snickers.

Just after 8, Castle retired to his office, while Beckett sat on the couch with the box and file in front of her. She began with the file, because she'd already gone through two and a half of those damn boxes that she needed a break. She spread out the photos, reports, and other little notes that Lanie had thrown in it. Grabbing a notepad, she began jotting down observations to follow up on.

Meanwhile, Castle sat down at his computer. Again, he was looking at that cursor. But he wasn't as angry with it as he had been the previous night. Slowly, he put his hands into the keys and began to type. It was almost like when a kid learns to ride a bike. Wobbly, meandering, slowly, the words appeared on the screen. This was a huge improvement over what had transpired previously.

His head had an entire paragraph laid out; it was just a matter of typing it out. He allowed his eyes to look over the top of the screen at her, sitting on the couch, making notes while biting her lower lip. He smiled. She was too focused to see him, so he looked back down at his screen.

She took a brief moment to look up at him. Typing so intently. _He must have found something to get him going_, she thought, and looked down at her file.

This is how they spent the next few hours. He was blowing through page after page, thoughts gushing from his mind like a tsunami. He'd never had a writing session like this before. He couldn't explain it. Every time he began to slow down, he'd look out at her, working so hard, and get another burst of energy.

Around 12:30, he had four chapters done. Even he was impressed. Quickly, he opened up his email, and responded to Gina's last email, which may have included several colorful metaphors, and attached his document and sent it out into cyberspace. He shot up and out of his seat, needing a drink.

He quickly walked out of the office and toward the kitchen. "Do you want anything?" he asked.

"One of whatever you're having." She replied from her seat on the floor, next to the couch.

"Hey… why did you laugh about an hour ago?"

"What?"

"I didn't want to disrupt my train of thought, but you laughed at something."

She smiled. "I can tell when you're writing intense dialogue. You point in the air to no one, like you're in the conversation. And when you figure out what you want to write, both your eyebrows pop up and you start typing again. It's cute."

Castle got two glasses out and dropped ice inside. "Oh, I bet it's not half as cute as when you're thinking about something."

"Do I have a tell?" She asked him.

"Yes. You tap the end of your pen to your cheek three times. On the third time, you keep it there until your brain figures out what the important detail is. Then you point the pen at the detail and then write it down."

"I don't do that."  
"You most certainly do." He poured a bit of scotch into both glasses, and then set the bottle down. Grabbing the glasses, he walked over to where she was sitting. He handed her one from behind the couch, then climbed over it, and sat down, straddling her with his legs.

From her seat on the floor, Beckett took a long drink. Putting it down, she looked over her notes. "I think I'll have Esposito and Ryan look into these labs tomorrow," she said, pointing to the list Lanie had provided. "I looked up a little information on all three, but…"

She was interrupted as Castle put his hands on her neck. He began slowly rubbing her back. Instantly, she forgot what she was talking about. Beckett leaned back , allowing him to put more pressure on her.

"Wow. You've got knots everywhere."

"Well… It's been… a long day…" She closed her eyes, allowing the massage to relax her.

"I never told you about the two weeks I shadowed a professional masseuse, did I?"

"Mmmmm…"

"You remember that character in _Storm Warning_, the masseuse who was a former KGB agent?"

"Mmmmm…"

"He was only in the book for a chapter and a half, but I felt that learning a thing or two about the job would help me in any… late night endeavors."

She couldn't respond at all.

Castle figured that he was succeeding in taking her mind off his troubles and her case at the same time. He was careful to put too much pressure on her back, which showed some bruising from her confrontation with Eller earlier in the day.

After a while of rubbing her shoulders and neck, he decided to see how far down her chest she'd allow his hands to go before she said anything. He was surprised at how far he got.

"Whatcha doing?"

"I am simply giving you a relaxing neck and shoulder massage."

She smiled. "Um… my boobs aren't on my neck _or_ my shoulders."

He had no answer for that.

She got to her knees and turned around. Simultaneously, she pulled herself to him while pushing him down into the couch. It was time to reward him for all his hard work that day. She kissed him long and hard, while holding his hands above his head.

"So. About those boo-boos you mentioned needed kissing…" he began, once they came up for air. "How many exactly do you have?"

"Lots." She smiled.

"And where exactly are they located…"

"Everywhere."

##########

The next morning, the two of them got ready in a much better mood than they had the day before. They dressed quickly, hoping to get to the precinct before Esposito and Ryan. In the cab, the box of evidence sat between them, but they still held each other's hand on top of the box. Looking over, Castle could see that Beckett was cradling her badge in her other hand, running her thumb across the numbers while looking out the window.

Castle was still riding the wave of euphoria of getting started on his novel. He understood why rock stars needed unique outlets to focus their energies after concerts. Usually, an epic laser tag match with Alexis did the trick. Last night had been very different. He wasn't sure which he enjoyed more.

They got out of the cab and stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the 12th precinct. "Ready?" He asked her.

"Yep." She replied as they entered the building.

They came up the stairs, smiling, ready to start their day. Castle set the box down on Beckett's desk. Ryan came walking up, a very confused look on his face.

"Morning." Beckett and Castle said in unison.

"Good morning… Um…" Ryan said.

Beckett looked at him. "What is it?"

Ryan took a breath, about to say something that he didn't understand. "Um… my… spidey senses are tingling?"

Castle was equally confused. "Allrighty."

But Beckett knew what this was about. "What do you… I don't know what… How do you…" She sputtered, very flustered, while turning a faint shade of red. She looked beyond Ryan, to see Esposito, with his face buried in his hands, trying to conceal the gut-busting laughter he was currently experiencing.

"Did he tell you to say that?" She asked Ryan.

"He paid me 5 bucks to say it. I have no idea what it means."

"That makes two of us." Castle said.

Beckett looked at the two of them. "Get this stuff into the conference room. We'll game plan in there. We'll get the coffee." She said, walking towards Esposito's desk.

"What was that all about?" Castle asked Ryan.

"I'm assuming it has something to do with you two… _dusting for prints_… if you know what I mean."

"I would have gone with _booking the suspect_." Castle joked, picking up the box.

"How about _frisking the suspect_?" Ryan returned.

"Nice."

Meanwhile, Beckett walked past Esposito's desk on her way to the break room. He peeked through his fingers, allowing his broad smile peek through as well. "OK. I'm sorry, but that was funny."

Without saying a word, she slugged him in the arm, and continued to the break room.

Once again, Beckett and Esposito brought the coffee for their partners in the break room. Ryan let out a yawn, which triggered yawns in Beckett and Castle. Esposito shook his head. "One benefit to being single. I get my sleep."

Beckett updated Esposito and Ryan regarding the developments at the ME's office, and the notes that Beckett had taken previous to last night's frisking session. "Is Eller still in lockup here?" She asked.

"No. He was moved to the county jail late yesterday." Esposito said.

"That's OK. Actually, it's better than OK. I have a few more questions for him." She replied. "Castle and I will head down there to question him. I want you guys to look into these three labs. If we can find which one supplied the sample that was used on our vic, we are that much closer to finding our killer."

Esposito and Ryan looked at each other. "What about Captain's… _pairings_?" Ryan asked.

"You guys get ready, we'll go outside, and I'll trade Esposito for Castle."

"I don't think that's very fair. Seems like you could get more for me." Esposito said.

"Hey." Castle shot back.

"Still no sign of the living Kaminsky?" She asked.

"Nothing." Esposito shook his head. "It's almost like he vanished off the face of the earth."

"He may be scared." Beckett surmised. "He knows his brother was killed, possibly mistaken for him, what would you do?"

Castle got up to leave the room. "It's been said that good fortune favors the bold. Maybe we need to go out and look for ourselves."

The other three shrugged as Castle led them out of the conference room. Immediately, they were distracted by a shouting from across the room. A uniform was talking to a smaller man, with receding brown hair, a pointed nose and small eyes. The man was wearing old blue jeans, a worn t-shirt. The man was looking and pointing directly at Castle. It was none other than the missing Kaminsky brother.

"THAT'S HIM! THAT'S THE GUY THAT KILLED MY BROTHER! HE'S HERE TO KILL ME, TOO!"

Castle looked over at Beckett, whose baffled look brought out a smile in him. "Or, if we just sit and do nothing, maybe the solution will present itself.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Author's note: I feel like I rushed writing this scene. If there's a question you thought "Why didn't Beckett ask him about _?" please let me know. Thanks!**_

Kaminsky took a long time to calm down. When he stumbled onto the crime scene, he saw the dead body of his twin brother, along with a taller man with a pointed nose and a nice suit. He told Beckett that he had assumed that the man standing over his brother's body was the killer, so he made a run for it. Once he understood that Castle was working with the police department, he was put to some ease. It helped when Ryan showed him one of Castle's books that had his picture on the back. Why would a successful novelist kill a person he had absolutely no connection to? Beckett led him into the waiting room, which was much more appropriate than the interrogation room. She offered him coffee, and he accepted. Apparently, he hadn't slept since yesterday.

He shifted uncomfortably in the chair.

"I'm sorry about the cheap seats in here." Beckett said.

"It's fine. I'm just tired. I'm sorry about the scene." Ronald Kaminsky said through tears. "When I saw Jeff's body, and I saw you standing there, I just assumed…"

"That I had something to do with it?" Castle asked.

Kaminsky nodded.

"We had actually just gotten there; we hadn't even had time to call it in yet." Beckett responded.

Ronald forced a smile. "Do you know who killed my brother?" He asked.

"We're working on that. I do have some questions for you that may help shed some light on the situation." Beckett said. Castle always admired how she could put the relatives of a murder victim at ease, while simultaneously inching her case forward.

Kaminsky nodded.

"How has life been since you've been out?"

He let out a half laugh. "Well, it's better being out than in. But being out has been challenging. The only work I could get is the midnight to 8 am shift stocking groceries a few blocks from my apartment. I guess they figure I can't embezzle from the canned goods."

"Were you working two nights ago?"

"Yes."

"Can your neighbors vouch for you before midnight?"

"Detective… I don't want to get to know my neighbors at all. I'm sure I live amongst drug dealers, drug users, and drug traffickers. I have to look out my peephole just to make sure that no one is in my hallway before leaving." Beckett understood where he was coming from. He wasn't that physically imposing, so he'd need to use stealth as to not get noticed. "Most of my neighbors are bigger tougher guys. And I'm…" He gestured to all of him.

"Less… impressive?" Castle asked. Kaminsky nodded, as if he'd been living those two words since 2nd grade. "Who says men don't have a body image, huh?"

"I know." Kaminsky said. "Have you seen the GI Joes they're selling now? Crazy big muscles. That's a great after dinner topic."

Castle thought that a strange choice of words, but didn't think too much of it. The back of his mind couldn't help but begin focusing on chapter 5.

"And after you worked…" Beckett continued, "Where did you go then?"

He gave a half chuckle. "I worked until 8, in the morning, got some food, and was going to Jeff's to do some work. That's when I saw you." He nodded to Castle.

"How much did you talk to your brother?" Castle asked.

"Every day. Jeff was very helpful. He let me use his computer to write resumes and print cover letters. I did a few Skype interviews in his apartment, he gave me food. He told me that he was talking to his boss to try and get me a job."

Beckett and Castle looked at each other. Josh Lyman hadn't even known that Jeff had a brother, let alone someone who was looking for employment.

"When was the last time you saw or talked to him?" Beckett inquired.

"I went over to his place two days ago. We had dinner about 6, I did some work on his computer, and I left around 9. He wanted to go to bed early."

Beckett's mind was turning. "Did he seem agitated at all?"

"No."

"Can you think of any reason anyone would be angry with him?"

Kaminsky searched his thoughts. "He had a girlfriend. They broke up just before I got out. I guess it was pretty nasty, but he never thought she would resort to violence. Have you been looking at his emails?"

"We're checking his work emails, yes." Beckett said.

"No, no. His personal emails. He had a Yahoo account, I'm pretty sure that he didn't do a whole lot of deleting."

Beckett and Castle exchanged glances. "Do you happen to know his username and password?" Castle said. "It may help us out a lot."

"Yes." Ronald said, taking a piece of paper from Beckett and scribbling down the information.

Beckett took a deep breath, prepping herself for the next round of questions. "Is there anyone who may want to hurt… you?"

Kaminsky processed that question for a moment. "Do you think… someone may have killed _him_… thinking he was _me_?"

"At this point, we're looking at every possibility."

Ronald's eyes began to well with tears. "Um… There was this guy. In prison. Clay Eller. He had it in for me." He looked down at his coffee, thinking about his brother. "I heard that he just got out. If Clay killed Jeff… I don't…" he couldn't finish his sentence, overcome with emotion.

"We're looking at him. We have him in custody on other charges, so he'll be in for a while." Beckett said. "Did you see anyone suspicious while you were on your way out?  
"No."

"Do you know if he knew anyone with any type of medical experience?" Beckett didn't quite want to reveal the specific nature of how Jeff was killed, but she needed answers.

"Not that I know of." He answered, not really knowing why.

"Had he come into any large amounts of money recently? We're looking at any possible motive."

"His job paid well, but I don't think he was rolling in dough."

The questioning went on for a while longer, Beckett didn't quite learn anything new. She needed him to go to the morgue to make an official ID of the body. He said he would.

Beckett and Castle walked him to the elevators. Kate looked at him with a sorrowful look. She wished that she had better news for him. "I'm sorry about what happened to your brother. But we will find out who did this."

He looked back. "Thank you, Detective."

"I'll have a squad drive you to the ME's office, and then to your apartment, if that's OK."

He nodded as he stepped onto the elevator, smiling as the doors closed in front of him.

"Poor guy." Castle said. "Trying to get his life back on track and something like this happens."

Beckett squinted at him. "Something's off." She began walking toward her desk.

"How so?"

"Jeff… with no criminal history whatsoever… up and decides to embezzle half a million dollars just a few months after his brother… who served prison time for _tax fraud_… was released?"

Castle began turning the gears. "I follow. Jeff and Ronald hatch this master plan. Jeff's access, Ronald's know-how, combine to perpetrate a massive theft. Then, Ronald decides that he wants it all to himself, so he kills Jeff, taking all the money for himself."

By now, they had reached her desk. She picked up the phone to order the squad to drive Ronald to the ME's, and then to his apartment. She also ordered them to shadow Ronald after they dropped him off, just in case. The two walked back to Esposito and Ryan's desks.

She looked at the two of them. "Anything on our three labs?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Said Ryan. "I had to dig pretty deep, but I found something." He held up some printouts about one of the labs he was looking into. "It seems our good friends at MHL Laboratories have made some significant campaign contributions to a particular member of the US Senate."

"No way!" Castle said, almost excited about the possibility of Senator McCarty's name being back in the mix.

"Yes way." Ryan responded, happy to have gotten that type of reaction.

"OK." Beckett said, game planning in her head. "Ryan, you head on down to MHL, see what you can find. See if anyone was lifting some of this Q-3 neurotoxin from their shelves. Don't leave until they check their entire inventory, got it?"

"I'm on it." He said as he grabbed his coat.

"Espo, you look through Jeff's personal emails. Ronald made mention of an ex girlfriend that may have threatened him." She handed him the information Kaminsky had given her.

"No problem." He took it and got to work.

"What about us?" Castle said.

She smiled at him. "How about a relaxing drive to the County jail?"

He put on his best _you got me_ expression. "What have I done now?"

"Your back massage wasn't long enough." She smiled.

"Oh, I will go to jail every time then."


	18. Chapter 18

Since Beckett still wasn't allowed to use a police car, Castle hailed a cab for a lift to the County Jail. While he wanted to help her solve the case, he didn't want to do it too quickly, as it may constitute the end of their professional relationship. He felt uncomfortable keeping his conversation with Gates secret from Beckett, but he figured it would distract her.

They were waiting in a room for the guards to bring in Eller. "Do you think you'll be able to get more out of him this time?" Castle asked.

"I've got a few ideas." She responded.

At that, the door opened and in walked the orange suit clad Eller, led by a jail guard. He still sported the large white bandage on his nose. As soon as he saw Beckett, he broke into a big smile. "Well, if it isn't my detective friend… with the taser."

"Well, if it isn't my ex con friend with the penchant for mischief." She smiled.

He sat down. "How's the cheek?" he asked.

"Doing better than your nose, I see." Castle understood what Beckett was doing. With criminals, particularly violent ones, there was a certain level of respect that they had amongst each other. Eller had been bigger and more heavily armed than Beckett was in their last encounter, yet it was Kate that had won the battle. Eller held her in a degree of reverence in his mind.

"So. Why are we talking again?" Eller asked.

"I want to know how you found Kaminsky in that apartment."

"Maybe it was my superior powers of deduction." He laughed.

"Why didn't you take any of the money?" she asked.

Eller's expression changed from smug confidence to confusion. "What money?"

"Jeff Kaminsky stole half a million dollars the day he was killed."

Eller's jaw dropped. "Half a mil? If ida known that, I would've looked around a bit more." He shook his head in disbelief and disappointment. "Damn."

With her setup now complete, Beckett moved in for the kill. "Here's the thing, Clay. Kaminsky stole a bunch of money from some powerful people. They killed him in a very sneaky way before you got there… but I can place you at his apartment, and now the money is missing. It's not going to take too much brain power for a jury to think _you_ took it."

He looked at her, processing everything. Castle knew Eller understood what she was telling him. He may be a criminal, but he wasn't stupid.

"Someone else got wind of his theft, stole the money, killed him, and is trying to get you to take the fall. And they will probably succeed if you don't help us."

Castle held in his breath. He was hoping that someone would say something before he ran out of air.

Eller looked at Beckett, completely ignoring Castle. Then he smiled and leaned forward to her. "OK. I'll help out. I got a call. That night about 11 pm."

"From who?"

"Don't know. They was trying to make their voice sound lower than it was."

"So somebody tipped you off. What did they say?"

"They said that if I wanted to find Ronald, he was at that apartment. I went there, the door was unlocked. I went in, saw Ronald… I mean… whoever, leaned back in the chair. Tried talking to him, but he didn't say anything."

"What did you say to him?" Castle asked, more curious for himself than interested in adding to the investigation.

Eller smiled again, looking at Castle. "I'd been thinking about that for awhile. Wanted it to be one of those moments like in the movies. I said: No one disrespects me, especially not some little nerdy tax fraud."

Castle tilted his head, considering the line.

"I know, coulda been better. But I'm a criminal, not a writer."

Castle nodded. That was an understatement.

"Thanks for your help." Beckett said, standing up.

"Good luck, Miss cop." Clay said.

Exiting the jail, Castle dipped into the endless sea of admiration he had for Beckett. "I see what you did there. Playing on his honor… very cool."

"Well, any type of relationship is built on certain aspects. You just have to find out what aspects are most important." She said.

"What aspects is our relationship based on?" He asked.

She thought about that. "Trust? Respect?"

"Witty banter? Shenanigans?" He finished, as Beckett's phone began to chirp.

"Beckett." She answered. Castle leaned as close as he could, which was a lot closer than he could get when they started working together. The first time he got too close during a call, she pulled his ear. _Hard_. Now, she allowed him to get as close as he wanted.

It was Ryan, at MHB labs. "I've got the employees looking through the supply of Q-3. Hopefully they won't be too much longer. But I did find one bit of interesting information."

"What's that?" Castle and Beckett said in unison.

"Not only did MHL Labs make significant campaign contributions to Senator McCarty, but it seems that our good friend Mister Hudson, the Senator's Chief of Staff, used to do PR for the labs before joining the campaign."

Castle looked at Beckett. "That guy Hudson didn't seem to like Jeff very much."

"And he threatened Jeff before he found out that he was dead." Ryan said.

Beckett thought it was a possible lead, "But why would he threaten a man he killed, while standing in front of a detective."

"Damnit." Castle said, disappointed that the Hudson lead wasn't stronger. "Or… Maybe he said that to throw us off. What would make his alibi seem stronger."

"Castle and I will pay him a visit. We're on our way. You stay at the lab, see what you can find out about the toxin, but give Esposito a call and have him start looking into this Hudson guy."

"No problem." Ryan responded.

Beckett turned off her phone, staring off into space, processing the recent news. At last, she turned to Castle, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

He returned her gaze. "Probably. But I don't know if we have time to get all the way back to my place for 20 minutes of _aerobics_ and make it to the Senator's office in a timely manner."

She peered at him under her brow. "How many clever lines to you have in that head of yours? You've only got the one mouth."

He smiled. "I just get excitable as to choice. I like to keep my options open."

"Who leaves the door unlocked to a body that they just killed with a neurotoxin?"

"You said it yourself. Whoever killed Jeff and took the money is trying to get Eller to take the fall." He said, raising his arm to hail a cab.

One pulled up and the two of them got in. "This was really, really planned." She said.

"Any more than the usual shenanigans we put a stop to?" He asked.

"Maybe being out off the force for three months has given me a new perspective." She looked out the window as the buildings blurred by. Her absence helped her appreciate what she had in her job even more. The opportunity Gates had given her had only made her hungrier for a chance to come back permanently. But at the same time, she wasn't sure if Castle would be allowed back. At worst, she'd see him every night and all weekend, like normal couples, but he made the job infinitely more enjoyable.

They were just about to the Senator's office when Beckett's phone began to buzz. It was Esposito. "Your boy Hudson? Has a double major in PR… and chemistry. Probably why he got the job with MHL."

"So that proves knows his stuff, but doesn't give me anything I can really work with." Beckett replied.

"Maybe this will tickle your fancy." Espo continued. "He's also been the subjects of calls for squad a few times for drunken brawls. Two weeks ago, he was in a very heated argument with a co worker."

"What are the possibilities that the co-worker he was arguing with was Jeff?" Castle asked.

"Strong to definite." Esposito responded.

"So. A guy with a background in chemistry, issues with our victim, and no alibi." Beckett looked at Castle.

"Game over, man… game over."


	19. Chapter 19

**Authors Note: Back after a short break! I'd been writing so much, I needed to take a break for a bit. But I'm ready to finish this story. It's final few chapters may not come out one per day, like I was doing, but it will be wraping up soon. Thanks for all the support and positive comments! Enjoy!**

Beckett called in some uniforms to pick up Hudson from the Senator's office. She'd wanted to get him on her turf to grill him.

Castle and Beckett strode back into the 12th precinct. She had been quiet during the cab ride, practicing the questions she was planning to ask, and the inflection with which to ask them. He was content to watch her contemplate her script.

Walking up to Esposito, Castle hadn't seen him looking that frustrated before. "Where are we with the emails?" Beckett asked the detective.

He looked at her in exhaustion. "I've got good news… and I've got weird news. The good news…" he began, "is that I found the emails from Jeff's girlfriend. Sure sounds like it was a nasty break up. She even implies she'd inject him with something to make him listen for once."

Beckett looked at Castle. "A man who doesn't spend enough time listening to the lady friend in his life. Seems to be a theme with this case."

He shot back his usual _gimme a break_ look.

She looked back to Esposito. "And the weird news?"

"Aside from these 9 emails? I can't find anything in his background that says he has a girlfriend. Nothing in the work emails, nothing on his phone, nothing any of his co-workers said in their interviews suggests he had one."

"Maybe he was crazy private?" Castle suggested.

"Oh… and all 9 emails were sent from the same internet café over the course of a month."

"Hmmmm…" Castle and Beckett both said, turning to each other.

"I know, right? It's like…"

"Someone may have been leading him on…" Castle began, looking at Beckett.

"… in order to get close to him, to learn how to steal the 500 thousand dollars." She continued, looking at him.

"Yeah, that's… just…" Esposito understood that no one was listening to him anymore, so he was content to stand where he was.

"If we can find the person sending those emails…" Castle continued.

"… maybe we can find who took the money and killed him!" Beckett finished. "Espo!" she shouted, forgetting that Detective Esposito was standing right next to her the entire time.

"I'm… I'm right here."

"Can you…"

"Find the internet café and ask around?"  
"Javier Esposito… psychic detective." Castle said. "I like it."

"That'll never work." Beckett said.

"Maybe on basic cable." Castle retorted.

"I'm on it." Esposito said, grabbing his jacket. "Your guy is in interrogation one." He hurried out of the bullpen and towards the elevator.

Beckett set her things down on her desk, mentally preparing for the upcoming questioning. Castle watched her; she was like a prize fighter walking to the ring, her mind getting ready.

"All set?" She asked him.

"Lead the way."

Castle noticed that the door to interrogation one didn't squeak anymore. Someone must've fixed it in the last three months. Behind the table was a clearly agitated Tom Hudson, looking more gaunt and depressed than angry and energetic, like the last time Castle saw him.

"Mister Hudson, I'm Detective Beckett, you know Mister Castle…" she motioned to her partner.

"Look… I told you everything I knew when you stopped by the office yesterday." Hudson said in a panicked tone.

"Then why didn't you tell us that the police were called when you got into an argument with Jeff Kaminsky a while back?"

Hudson was silent. He turned his head to the side. Even Castle could tell he was hiding something.

Beckett continued pressing. "I don't know if you've been keeping up with current events, but it doesn't look good for you. You threatened Kaminsky. You don't have an alibi for his murder. And you used to work for a lab that provided the toxin that killed him."

This began to panic Hudson even more than he already was. "How was he… what was…" Now, Beckett had his attention.

"Let's start from the beginning… and this time I want everything."

Hudson took a moment to compose himself. Exhaling, he said "When Jeff started working for us… I made the mistake of…" He paused.

"What?" Asked Castle, eager to hear the answer.

"I…" Hudson continued, making eye contact with his hands. "I… came onto him."

This answer was unexpected, but didn't faze Beckett at all. "So why did you threaten him?"

"At first, he laughed it off as a misunderstanding. But then, about two months ago, I started disagreeing with his advice. I told the Senator that I wasn't sure of his course of action. He countered by threatening to tell everyone."

Castle was confused. "So… you were scared that if the Senator found out…"

"Oh, no. The Senator knows." Hudson interrupted. "Very few of the senior staff does. But in a race this close, who knows how the press or opponent would handle the news. It could derail the entire campaign and drag my life through the papers. That's why I don't want it out there."

"So that night that the cops were called. What happened?" Beckett prodded.

"A bunch of us went out for drinks. After a while, Jeff and I started talking about things, we had a disagreement, and he said he was going to the press. My resolve, powered by vodka, caused me to get a little loud."

"But if the Senator lost, he'd suffer too, wouldn't he?" Castle added.

"Maybe a little. But he's a consultant. He'd just go hide behind Lyman's coattails waiting for the next gig to come along. But the rest of us? We'd all be out of a job."

"What's your connection to MHL labs?" Beckett asked.

"I worked for them in public relations out of college. Left last February to start working for the Senator."

"Have you been back since?"

"No. Some current employees are Facebook friends, but beyond that, I haven't been over there since I left."

"Do you ever remember seeing Kaminsky with a girlfriend? Did he ever mention her?"

"None that I ever heard about."

Beckett looked over at Castle. He could tell that she had anticipated nailing Hudson to the murder, but that possibility was looking dimmer with every question. _What should we do?_ Castle asked with his eyes. _I got nothing_. She retorted.

"Thank you for your time, Mister Hudson." Beckett said, standing up.

Hudson was a little confused. "So that's it? I can go home?"

"You're free to go for now." Beckett said, knowing she didn't have enough to book him. But beyond that, she didn't think he was the guy anyway.

"But don't leave town." Castle finished, always enjoying getting the last word in.

They left the interrogation room and went back to Beckett's desk. She sat down and began looking over her notes. Castle stood in front of the murder board, looking for any detail that would shift his perspective. Sadly, he'd been over it again and again. Still nothing.

Putting her elbows on her desk, Beckett ran her fingers through her head in frustration. She'd had to deal with it a lot during her time as a detective, but was somewhat out of practice in dealing with it since she'd been away.

For the next hour, they threw theories back forth, Castle providing it, and Beckett shooting it down with the facts. They were just about to recycle back to the first theories Castle spouted when both Ryan and Esposito came up the steps.

Both wore expressions that would be equal parts relief and confusion. "Hey." Castle said as they walked up.

This got Beckett's attention and she turned to face them. "Please… _please_… tell me you have something." She said.

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other. Clearly, they'd shared what they learned with each other. "It's like before." Esposito began. "I've got news… and I've got _weird_ news."

"Arrrgghh…" Beckett let out an agitated grunt. "Not again."

"Don't mind her." Castle told Esposito and Ryan. "She really does appreciate all your hard work. What's the news?"

"I found who was sending the emails." Esposito started.

"And I found out it was the same person who bought the toxin from MHL Labs that eventually killed our victim." Finished Ryan.

"OK." Beckett closed her eyes, "Gimme the weird news."

"It was our victim." Esposito and Ryan said in unison.

Beckett's eyes popped open in disbelief.

"Well…" Castle began. "That _is_ weird."


	20. Chapter 20

"So wait a minute…" Beckett began. "Just wait. Hold on. Just… Huh?"

"The employees at the internet café confirmed that Jeff Kaminsky visited a lot. Usually between midnight and 1AM." Esposito started.

"And the guy from MHL that lifted the toxin says he bought it from a well dressed guy matching Jeff's description at a drop at 1:30 am four nights ago." Ryan continued.

"So that rules out Ronald posing as Jeff." Castle said. "He would have been at work during those times."

Beckett looked at Esposito. Then Ryan. Then Castle. Throwing her hands up, she turned around and walked back to her desk. "Why would a man buy the very weapon he was killed with a few nights later?" She said in confused anger.

"Maybe the killer knew he had it?" Castle suggested, following her to her desk.

"So someone broke in to his apartment… on a hunch he had a powerful neurotoxin to inject him with to kill him and not steal anything?" She asked.

"Plus, that doesn't explain the fingerprints." Ryan said.

"Well…" Castle began. "… maybe we can go back to the cloning conspiracy. He found a deep dark secret. The government found out that he knew… and sent a CIA wet team in to finish the job. Because if Jeff Kaminsky lived, he'd…"

"Stop talking." Beckett said. "Please, just stop talking for ten seconds." The three men turned to look at her as she tried to unsuccessfully focus. "Let's take a ten minute break. Freshen up. Coffee up. We'll meet in the conference room in ten."

Esposito and Ryan walked off just as Beckett's desk phone began to ring. "Beckett." She said into it. "Great. Send her up. She knows where to go."

Castle noticed an instant attitude change in his Detective muse. "What was that about?"

"Well…" she said, grabbing his hand. "I thought you'd been a bit depressed lately. I've been doing my best to cheer you up. But I figured that I'd need… some reinforcements."

Castle's mind blurred through the possibilities of what Beckett was talking about. He figured it out before she expected him to. "Wow. You're like the girlfriend-of-the-year today!"

"Please. I'm girlfriend-of-the-year every day."

The elevator dinged and opened, revealing a head of flaming head of orange hair, attached to a young woman who exited quickly. She made her way to Beckett's desk. "Dad!"

"Alexis!" Castle couldn't have been happier to see his daughter, who had begun college recently. He'd been so busy dealing with his writer's block and working the Kaminsky case that he hadn't had the chance to check in as much as he had planned. He enveloped her in his arms, getting weeks worth of hugs in the span of twenty seconds. "What are you doing all the way down here?"

She pulled away. "Well, Kate called and said you were going through some issues." She said, sharing a hug with Beckett. "And I finally got a break in my classes enough to stop by."

"You stopped by at the perfect time. We need to talk about something besides this case. How are your classes?"

"So far… they're challenging, difficult, and going to be a huge test. I love them!" She said.

"I want to hear about every one of them." Castle told her.

"Well, first I have to tell you this funny story. You may think this is funny, too, Kate."

Beckett smiled. She'd wanted to stand next to Castle, holding his hand and resting her head on his shoulder. But this was one of those times where she had to share him. She didn't mind. She'd have enough of him later. For now, she didn't want to distract his attention from Alexis.

"I had a meeting with my advisor, who asked me what interests I had. I told him that I'd spent time working in the office of the County Medical Examiner. He suggested I join the forensics team. It took me 15 minutes to convince him that the forensics team didn't deal with dead bodies. That in fact, it is the _speech_ team."

At that word, Castle dropped his smile and stood up. "Speech."

"I know, right? You'd think he'd know about that." Alexis continued, but Castle wasn't listening.

"What?" Beckett said, noticing that the light bulb above Castle's head turned on.

"Speech…" he said, standing up and walking to the murder board. "Speech…"

Beckett followed him, trying to determine what it was that had interested him. Esposito and Ryan walked up behind Alexis, each with a fresh cup of Joe. "What's going on?" Esposito asked her.

"Dad's having one of his breakthroughs." She said, content to watch her dad do his thing. The two detectives put down their coffees, and whipped out their notebooks. They'd seen this scene enough times to know where it was going. They craned their necks to hear what was being said.

Castle pointed to the photo of Ronald Kaminsky, the ex-con twin of Jeff. Looking at Beckett, he began. "When we had our interview with Ronald, what did he say when I made that crack about men having a body image?"

Beckett thought for a moment. She mostly remembered his answers to her questions, not what he said in between. "Um… It was something about…"

"He said that it was a good topic for _after dinner_."

"Yeah. So?"

"In the world of speech, an _after dinner_ is a specific type of speech. In collegiate forensics, it's one of the four public address events." He gestured toward Alexis, trying his best to give her credit for sparking this line of thought.

"That's right." Alexis said, hoping to add something. "Persuasion, informative, communication analysis, and… after dinner."

Beckett began to see where Castle was going.

"So why," he continued, "Would Ronald, who didn't go to college and has no background in speech, use that term…" his finger slowly moved from Ronald's picture.

"Unless we were actually talking to Jeff _posing_ as Ronald." Beckett finished as Castle's finger settled on Jeff's picture. He smiled, knowing he had Beckett's full understanding. "Jeff planned to steal the 500 thousand dollars from the senator's funds. He knew he couldn't do that without the paper trail leading directly to him."

"So he switched identities with his identical twin, leading us to believe the body was his own, when it was, in fact, his brothers."

"That would explain why he was the one who bought the toxin." Ryan said. "He wasn't using it on himself; he was going to use it on Ronald."

"That also explains why he was sending emails to himself pretending to be a girlfriend. He was trying to throw us off." Esposito continued.

"And he chose MHL labs because of Tom Hudson's connection to them." Castle added.

"And that he tried to set Clay Eller up to take the rap for the murder. He gambled that we wouldn't find the neurotoxin in Ronald's blood. But Lanie did her job well." Beckett finished. "We _got him_!" she said, almost shouting. It had been a while since she was able to nail a murderer to a rap. "Let's call the uniforms that were tailing him. See where he's at right now."

"But we may have a slight problem." Ryan said. "He already identified the body in our morgue as Jeff. We can't be certain which brother the body is because of the damage to the fingerprints. But if our killer is Jeff, it may be a bit difficult. His prints aren't in the system. We don't know how Jeff's prints differ from Ronald's."

The four of them were caught in silent thought as Alexis timidly raised her hand. "I've got an idea." She said.


	21. Chapter 21

Jeff Kaminsky had a busy few days.

It all started when he had implemented a plan he'd been working on for several months. He stole a huge bit of money from the political campaign he was assigned to work for. He thought that he'd have an easier time getting away with it if he provided the police with the mother of red herrings.

He'd never been that close with his identical twin, Ronald. It always incensed him when people assumed that they did everything together. The reality was that the twins were actually very different. In school, Jeff had excelled, and Ronald, not able to keep up, only succeeded at trouble. Once Jeff went off to college, Ronald was finally able to be himself and straightened out a bit. That was, until he ran into a little trouble with the IRS and spent some time in prison.

When Ronald was close to being released, Jeff reconnected. Ronald, needing any help he could get, was eager to make the reconnection, even with their troubled history. But the entire time, Jeff was working toward his plan, which Ronald was an unwitting participant in.

Jeff thought he was so smart. He stole 500 thousand dollars from his contracted employer, a US Senator. The next day, before anyone had noticed, he withdrew it all in cash, placed it into a black duffel bag. He had to laugh at himself for being very cliché, but it was functional, and the only thing to carry a large amount of money he had in his apartment.

After taking the money, he waited at his apartment, preparing for the middle phase of his plan. Ronald showed up around 6. They had dinner, talked about things. Ronald mentioned he had an interview the next day, but he still had no suit. Jeff suggested he try on the new Abboud suit he had just bought. While Ronald sat in the computer chair in Jeff's apartment, going over his resume, Jeff had snuck up behind him and injected the back of his head with a neurotoxin. Ronald lost control of his body instantly, but was still alive. Jeff apologized to his brother, as Ronald's brain slowly began to die. Another challenge was to remove Ronald's fingerprints. Jeff thought that eventually, the police may figure things out. But he thought his diversions would buy him enough time to slip into anonymity. After that, he gathered up whatever he needed, including the money, made a call to Clay Eller, and then went off to Ronald's work, as Ronald.

He knew that there were lockers at the grocery store Ronald worked at. He needed somewhere to store all his belongings while the police began looking into things. He enjoyed the total lack of mind power needed to do the stocking job. But he needed to be there in case the police began looking into Ronald's background.

The next day, he had called the police to tip them off about the body. He had expected to show up after the NYPD, to further sell his alibi. But when he showed up, he thought he'd see a uniform or a badge. Instead, he saw a man… he thought he recognized from a book he'd read once. He panicked a bit, not knowing if the man was with the police or something worse. He ran, eluding the man and two detectives who had shown up. He took a day to lay low in a cash only hotel to plan out what to do next. He had found out the precinct that was handling the investigation. He thought that the best way to deflect suspicion was to just go to the police, perhaps leading them in another direction.

He did that, discovering that the man he saw in his apartment wasn't a cop, but was the writer he suspected. Just doing research. Apparently he and the lady detective had been brought in by his boss, Josh Lyman.

After that, he had gone to identify the body of his brother, as himself, then went to his apartment. After the Squad had left, he snuck back out, back to the locker at the grocery store, to get his bag of money, and returned to Ronald's apartment to see what he could salvage. He'd only take what he could carry. He'd planned to take a train somewhere, _anywhere_, and begin building a new life under a different name.

After gathering up his things, he left apartment 2F and headed for the stairwell. He was almost ready to take them two at a time, but figured he was so close to finishing his plan, he didn't want to risk a rolled ankle. But getting to the bottom of the stairs, he saw a sight that put his heart in his throat. The lady detective, along with the writer, and two other men were walking toward him.

"Mister Kaminisky?" Beckett said.

He did his best to hide his panic. "Detective… what are… do you have any information on my brother's murder?"

"We are following several leads. The information you provided was very helpful in getting us nearer to an arrest."

He faked being pleased. "Great."

"But I wanted to just connect with your parole officer, Lieutenant Henderson, here," She motioned to the taller of the two men, "just to make sure that you were doing OK."

Jeff was burning through his memory. He had met Henderson one time, shortly after Ronald was released. "Well, it was rough… what happened to Jeff. I'm trying to move on."

"Detective Beckett's concern is well founded." Lieutenant Henderson said. "This is a great trauma you've been through, Ronald. I'm here to help."

Jeff hesitated. He wasn't sure how to proceed.

"In fact," Henderson continued, "one of my other parolees has also gone through something similar." Here, he turned to the fourth person of the group, a short, bulky man with glasses and bushy hair. "This is Errol Ross."

Errol shot his hand out to shake, and eventually, Jeff took it. "Nice to meet you, Errol." Jeff said.

Ross didn't respond. He continued shaking Jeff's hand, looking into his eyes. Jeff thought something must be afoot, judging by the length of the handshake. He retreated his hand, and tried to continue the ruse.

"So. What were you in for?" Jeff asked Ross.

Ross continued to stare at him a moment longer. He then turned to Beckett and shook his head back and forth.

This was the cue that Beckett had been waiting for. "Jeff Kaminsky, you're under arrest for theft, and for the murder of Ronald Kaminsky."

Suddenly, Jeff was grabbed on either side by two more detectives. The darker skinned one took Jeff's duffel and opened it, showing the overflow of cash to the rest of the group. The skinnier one cuffed him.

Jeff looked at the door. He was so close. "What gave me away?" He asked.

"Well, you threw us a few too many diversions." Beckett said. "The whole case seemed to be something out of a bad mystery book."

He looked down, defeated.

"Well, that and…" the writer started, "If you were going to be posing as Ronald, you may have at least wanted to know the name of the man he shared a cell with for almost two years." He motioned to Errol.

"Which you may have known if you ever came to visit him." Ross finished.

The two detectives led him out the door. Just a few minutes ago he was hoping to catch a train to Florida, or Texas, or LA. Now, his chance at freedom was as cold as his victim.


	22. Chapter 22

Beckett looked into Errol Ross's eyes and saw a look she had seen many times. Someone who had just found out that they had lost somebody close to them. In Ross's case, it was his best friend and former cell mate, Ronald Kaminsky.

"He looked out for me." Errol said, his voice cracking. "Guys like us don't do too well in that type of environment. But he looked out for me. Taught me to be tougher. Kept telling me that we'd make it through."

"I'm sorry for your loss." She told him with forgiving eyes.

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault." He replied. Then he laughed, "Funny. That he was an ex-con, ready to fly straight from now on, yet he gets done in by his straight laced brother."

"Somehow, our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face." She replied.

"We were both truly sorry for what we did." Errol looked at her. "So many other guys in for tax fraud were mad at the government… at the IRS. But we realized that it was our choices… our stupid choices that got us in there. Hundreds of millions of people pay their taxes correctly. We screwed up." His chubby face grinned as he remembered his friend. "I just got out two days ago. We were going to reconnect once we were on the outside and look out for each other again."

"Well, Mister Ross, I think that Ronald would want you to stay on this straight path that you and he laid out. He may not be around to look out for you, but he seemed to set you in the right direction. Keep it up." She said, grabbing his shoulder in a reassuring manner.

Castle, meanwhile, was standing off to the side. While Beckett and Ross were standing near the entrance of the apartment building, Castle was standing near the mailboxes, next to the elevator. Leaning against the wall, he watched her. He marveled at the way she could put someone at ease following devastating news. Esposito strode up, having just finished putting Jeff Kaminsky into a squad and sending him to the precinct. He joined Castle in leaning against the wall.

"So. You think Captain will let her back?"

"She'd be stupid not to."

"What about you? Are you coming back too?"

Castle paused. "I'm working on a plan."

At this point, Ryan joined them in observing Beckett and Ross. "It's like she never left."

"This time back on the force… back with you guys… has made her pretty happy." Castle said, sighing.

Esposito laughed. "Our Detective Kate Beckett. Only happy when it rains."

Castle liked the analogy. "Yeah. But most people would look at that… look at _her_… and think that she's got some morbid curiosity, or some need to finish the mystery…"

"No, that's you, Castle." Ryan shot back.

"Factually correct. But Beckett is only happy when it rains… so she can find that person without an umbrella, someone who needs help. Then she lends them a hand to get through a tough time. That's what makes her happy."

Ryan thought about that, then added, "But there's another thing."

"What?" Esposito and Castle said in unison.

"The same reason you write. The same reason Javy spends his off days at the shooting range. The same reason I kick his ass in fantasy football every year."

"What's that?" Castle asked.

"Because she's good at it." Esposito said, leaning his head against the wall in acknowledgement of Ryan's dominance of him in the fall.

At this point, Erroll Ross left with Lieutenant Henderson, his parole officer, and Beckett began walking back to her friends. "Well, looks like we've got things wrapped up." She said.

Esposito could sense that she didn't want to go back to the precinct quite yet. If they went back to close the case, that means that Gates would send Castle home. It would probably happen eventually anyway, but there was no use in spoiling the rest of the day. "Why don't you two head home. It's been a long few days. Ryan and I will tackle the paperwork. You can come by in the morning to… um… meet with the Captain."

Ryan got the cue. "Yeah. Nothing we can't handle. You guys should go home."

Beckett looked at both of them in the eye. "Thanks, guys." Usually she did want to finish up things herself, but she had to admit, she was tired.

"See you tomorrow." Ryan said, as he and Esposito strode out of the building. Beckett watched them go, but once they were out the door, she switched her gaze to Castle.

He was smiling at her. He could sense the pride and exhilaration she felt in closing the case, but he could sense something uncomfortable in her. "So…" he decided to start the conversation to avoid talking about…

"Gates isn't going to let you back, is she?" Beckett got right to the point.

Castle froze. Again, there was no use lying. Beckett was pretty good at reading him, and she'd find out in the morning anyway. His smile faded as he shook his head.

When they had first met, she would have done anything to stop him from following her. Now, she'd do anything to get him to stay. "I'll meet with Gates in the morning." She began, looking at the floor while her brainstorm formulated possible alternatives. "I'll tell her that I won't come back unless you come with me."

Castle grabbed her hand. "Don't do that." He said. "You need this job much more than you need me to be there with you." He could tell that Beckett was fighting back her emotions. "You've been different these past two days. Happier than you've been since you left the force."

"But… I don't think I can do this job without you." She said, her voice cracking.

"Yes you can." He replied, dipping his head to look her closer in the eyes. "You can do it. I'm not going to deny that the job is more fun with me around…"

She laughed.

"… but it's what you need to do. You've still got two close friends working with you. And I'm on speed dial. And you can tell me all about your case every night when you get home."

"Yeah…" she seemed to give up, knowing that Castle was right. She composed herself, and then looked back at him. "If you could come back, would you?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

"But you worked through your writer's block by working with me. Aren't you worried that not working a case…"

"I didn't get over the block by working the case." He said. "I only had it because I could tell that you were… _off_. Once you started working the case, your mood changed. Once you were happy… I could write again."

Her thoughts swirled. She was flattered that her happiness helped him go. "But maybe if I…"

"Don't…" he said, putting his finger on her lips. "Let's worry about that tomorrow."

"What about tonight?" she asked, through the finger pressed against her lips.

"Well, Alexis is visiting one of her friends, but she's done in about two hours. Then we will all go out to dinner and we can hear all about her first week of college."

"Isn't that the sort of thing you should do with just _her_?"

"_She_ suggested it." Castle said, smiling. He moved his hand from her face to her back as he was leading her out the door into the cool New York City air. They could both sense their normal banter routine about to return to normal.

"Are you sure you can't call the Mayor… see what he can do?" Beckett suggested with a sly smile.

"No. She made it very clear that she will say no to the mayor." Castle replied with a grin.

"Well, Mayor Wheldon probably doesn't want you to get bigger than him in the media."

At her words, Castle stopped cold. "Bigger than the Mayor. That's it!"

"What's it?"

Castle's mind was racing. He looked at her and smiled. "Here's the plan." He said, grabbing her by the shoulders. "You go back to the loft. You've got some time before Alexis gets back. If you want, you can take a long shower, relax a bit, and get ready to go out for dinner."

"Where are you going?" she asked him.

"To find someone bigger than the Mayor."


End file.
